| The Magazine of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES |
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EDITORIAL The Future of Fish
As Jeremy Jackson, outspoken professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, watched his favorite coral reefs lose their fish diversity, their vitality, and finally, their lives, he turned his attention to the underlying cause: the poor health of their habitat. Today, when it comes to spreading the word about the state of the world’s oceans, Jackson doesn’t mess around. That’s clear from his unvarnished comments in “The Rise of Slime” on the declining diversity of sealife. Having largely exhausted the stocks of the traditionally edible species, fishing fleets have moved on to more obscure varieties. Twenty-five years ago, I received an article from NOAA extolling the virtues of the tilefish. But it was only when wholesalers started to market it as “golden bass” or “golden snapper” that the market boomed. Within five years, landings had peaked and begun to decline. Elsewhere in the world, countries with well-developed fisheries began reaching out with contracts and high-powered fishing fleets to net the largesse of foreign waters, taking advantage of poorer countries who are not able to exploit their ocean resources. But the sea is running out of options. Jackson says that the latest growth fishery in parts of East Asia is jellyfish. Expect to see them more frequently on menus near you—although they may come to you under a different name. Richard Herrmann’s photographs in “Blue Shark Blues” also speak to the changes in the saltwater ecosystem. The assembly on page 16 was taken by Michael Nolan in the late 1980s. Although Herrmann remembers diving amidst such shark abundance, he says you would be very lucky to see such a sight today. Blue sharks have become rare, and the image on page12 shows why. As Cameron Walker explains in “What A Difference a Degree Makes,” the human impact on the oceans is overlaid on natural forces that are themselves profound. Long before there were great fleets of fishing boats harvesting the seas, huge swings in fish populations followed seemingly minor fluctuations in sea temperatures. Even the recent spectacular crashes of sardines off Monterey and anchovies off Peru may have been caused more by nature than by man. It’s an argument frequently used, of course, by fish catchers and seafood eaters alike. One creature that, as far as we know, has not been unduly affected by the ocean’s travails is the little-known marine water strider, Halobates. These extraordinary insects, which Pamela Turner describes in “Wave Rider,” live on the surface of the ocean, relying, like their freshwater cousins, on surface tension to prevent them from drowning. These are unusual—and exciting—times here at the California Academy of Sciences. Coincident with the publication of this issue, January 1, 2004, comes a three-month closure as we move to a transitional facility in downtown San Francisco. We expect to open at 875 Howard Street in April, complete with 85 percent of the fish in the Steinhart. The new facility will be turned “inside out” to enable visitors to see the workings of a large aquarium. Alongside, there will be newly-minted exhibits on topics ranging from ants to astrobiology. Apart from the occasional one- or two-day closure caused by storm, fire, pestilence (the 1918 influenza epidemic), or presidential proximity, this is the first time that the Academy has been closed since the 1906 earthquake. Back then, when the Academy reopened, some ten years later, it was at our present location in Golden Gate Park. Some time in 2008, after four years on Howard Street, we can look forward to returning to the park in a new, state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly building. Keith K. Howell is Editor of California Wild. |