Ocean: War of Independence

by Brian Herbert

  Despite bans on whaling, some rogue nations and individuals have continued to murder these large-brained animals—creatures so intelligent that they are sentient. Turtles, sea lions, and other marine animals are also being taken in large numbers, with no thought of species depletion. In the Arctic, men are lining up with rifles and shooting narwhal whales for their valuable ivory tusks, selling them to stores and collectors for large sums of cash.

  III. Mining Problems.

  The abuses are numerous and severe, including the obliteration of fragile seabed ecosystems by the mining of manganese, nickel, copper, iron, platinum, and silver, the destruction of coral reefs to obtain construction materials, and strip-mining around deep-sea hydrothermal vents to obtain gold and polymetallic sulfides.

  IV. Noise Pollution.

  The violations by human beings include setting off explosives to capture or kill fish, loud ship-engine and propeller noises, military demolition and armaments practice by world navies, nuclear testing, and the testing of sonar systems by the U.S. Navy that send sound pulses to locate enemy submarines—high-decibel, focused noises that cause the brains and auditory systems of whales to hemorrhage, which either kills the animals outright or causes them to lose their sense of direction and run aground.

  V. Oil Spills and Oil Drilling.

  Perhaps no other category of ocean-abuse has received more publicity, and more of a public outcry against the responsible industry. Despite this, and despite the availability of alternative energy sources, oil companies and their political lobbyists have managed to maintain their economic stranglehold on society, and keep drilling offshore and in the deep ocean, constantly finding new oil fields and pumping crude oil out of them. Inevitably, a share of those wells blow, and the tankers that transport petroleum products on the high seas (and on inland-ocean waterways) break apart and spew their hazardous cargoes into the ocean and onto beaches. In the Gulf of Mexico and other areas, oil refineries are located on shorelines, contaminating the water and nearby land with leakage. As a result of all this human carelessness, sea creatures and seabirds are covered with gooey black oil and die, while fishing grounds, shellfish beds, and beaches are ruined. But the drilling, transporting, and refining continues unabated.

  Two more factors exacerbate an already bad situation. First, in many cases, the detergents and chemical dispersants that are used to clean up the messes cause additional damage, killing smaller species of fish and crustaceans in the area. Second, the seriously damaged cargo ships and twisted remains of oil rigs are often left where they have sunk to the bottom of the sea, littering the seabed and interfering with the normal activity of marine ecosystems.

  VI. Marine Pollution.

  Much of what humans do in the waters of the ocean can be classified as marine pollution in one form or another, from the dumping of sewage and garbage into the water to oil spills and the wrecks of sunken ships and boats. In addition, a great deal of pollution is caused by waste products that run into the ocean from mills, factories, and farms all over the world—whether directly into the water or as run-off from the land or from rivers or other bodies of water that drain into the sea. As a result, heavy metals, hazardous industrial chemicals, and farm pesticides and herbicides (and harmful nitrogen from agricultural run-off) flow into the water from all directions, contaminating it with mercury, lead, and other chemicals that enter the ocean food chain and adversely affect marine life.

  On the shores of many cities, large outfall pipes discharge sewage directly into the ocean. In some cities, sewage sludge is collected from treatment plants and taken by barge to a saltwater dumping area. If untreated, the sewage contains living organisms that can cause viruses in marine animals. And all of this sewage, even when treated against harmful organisms, is still filled with heavy metals such as chromium and lead, along with nitrogen, which causes algae blooms that are too large for marine herbivores to consume, and can result in dead zones in the water with no oxygen—which in turn leads to species migrations and die-offs.

  Less visible, but still deadly, the waters and islands in some areas where nuclear testing has been conducted in the Pacific Ocean are so contaminated that they are no longer suitable for habitation by human beings or any other animal. Many of the marine animals in the water near the test sites are killed instantly, while others suffer longer-term radiation damage, which also has adverse effects on their reproductive cycles and the food chain, and destroys coral reefs and their habitats. Nuclear power plants, frequently situated on shorelines to secure cooling water from the sea, routinely release radioactive materials into the water. Additionally, many canisters of nuclear wastes, buried at the bottom of the sea, are corroding and leaking into the water.

  VII. Damage Caused by Ships, Boats, and Aircraft.

  Even in peacetime, every year hundreds of large ships sink in the ocean, from collisions with other vessels, or storms, or a lack of seaworthiness, or a host of other reasons, many of them involving human error and carelessness. Some of them are oil tankers carrying hazardous petroleum products. These lost vessels are in addition to the sinking of thousands and thousands of smaller boats every year. Large planes flying over the ocean often drop hazardous fuel in the water, and aircraft of all types crash into the sea. The vast majority of sunken ships and boats (and fallen aircraft) are left where they lie, on the bottom of the sea, leaking whatever contaminants were aboard.

  The amount of ship traffic is substantial—most of the trade between nations involves the transportation of goods over the sea. Many of these vessels run on dirty bunker-diesel fuel and their crews dump garbage and sewage overboard (see comments about Cruise Ships and Ocean Liners, below). Because a number of cargo ships are older, they leak oil and other contaminants into the water.

  It is particularly upsetting that many whales are killed or seriously injured when large vessels (such as massive, fast-moving container ships) hit them. Humpbacks, finbacks, and northern right whales, all species that spend a lot of time on the surface of the ocean, are particularly susceptible to being hit.

  Cruise Ships and Ocean Liners. These vessels often use filthy bunker-diesel fuel on the high seas, which releases huge amounts of heavy metals and other contaminants into the water and air, resulting in harm to plankton, shellfish, and other organisms due to ocean acidity. In addition, some passenger ships violate international law by dumping garbage and sewage overboard, and they venture into ecologically sensitive waters, such as those around Antarctica, and get too close to whales and other wildlife, even striking them. In tropical waters, these ships sometimes collide with coral reefs or drop their anchors onto coral formations, destroying large pieces of the living structures.

  VIII. Cruelty to Marine Animals and Other Acts.

  While observing sea animals by boat (including glass-bottom boats and sea kayaks), or swimming with them, tourists, tour operators, and other persons have used motor boats to harass whales, dolphins, porpoises, manta rays, and numerous other sea creatures, resulting in the animals’ aggravation or death—sometimes due to collisions with boats that get too close. In other cases, swimmers or divers attempt to ride turtles that are smaller than they are, and sometimes drown the creatures in the process.

  IX. Imperiled Coastal Ecosystems and Shorelines.

  There are too many cases in which humans destroy critical species’ habitats and spawning grounds to build resorts, aquaculture businesses, farms, and other enterprises—tearing up coral reefs, sea grasses, tide ponds, mangrove forests, saltwater wetlands, salt marshes, estuaries, and beaches with dredging, logging, and other clearing operations.

  Piers and docks are of special concern wherever they are located on saltwater shorelines, because they can interfere with the reproductive cycles of small organisms (such as snail darters) that form integral parts of the ecology of the shorelines. Bulkheads and bridges over water present similar problems.

  There are many examples of careless practices in ecologically sensitive marine environments. The fol
lowing are typical:

  Beaches: It has been customary for people to leave bottles, cans, food wrappers, and other garbage on beaches around the world, and—aside from the eyesore of this—the garbage is often washed out to sea by the tides. Sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches, in holes they have dug with their flippers, so it is important to protect such areas for this species.

  Tourists: Too often, Dive tourists remove pieces of living coral from coral reefs, or destroy the coral by touching it or bumping into it, thus seriously damaging the reef colonies.

  Dive Boats: Coral is frequently damaged by carelessly employed boat anchors.

  Treasure Hunters: Humans seeking gold bullion and other treasure from Spanish galleons, or trying to find various lost shipwrecks, often do whatever it takes to get what they want, even if it involves destroying coral reef formations and other sensitive marine environments.

  X. War and Preparations for War

  Throughout history, humans have proved themselves incapable of avoiding violence and warfare—and wherever military battles have occurred, the environment has suffered. Unlike battlefields that are on (or over) land, the ocean is hardly ever cleaned up afterward, and the seabed is left littered with the skeletons of sunken military aircraft and warships, including World War II German submarines off the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, and the Allied cargo ships that were their targets. In the Iran-Iraq war of the late 20th century, the Iraqi government intentionally scuttled a huge oil tanker for tactical purposes, to block enemy warships from taking a particular route. This resulted in a massive, and intentional, oil spill that caused great damage to the marine environment. And earlier, in the Arab-Israeli war of the 1960s, an entire shoal of bioluminescent fish was blown up when it was erroneously identified as an underwater military operation.

  As noted elsewhere in this document, nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean, military explosives testing, and navy sonar testing have caused injury and death to marine animals, including the organisms in reef colonies. In addition, whenever military authorities decide that certain explosives or chemical weapons are outdated, they typically transport them out onto the high seas aboard old cargo ships or warships, and then sink the ships. Such short-sighted, irresponsible acts result in biological agents leaking into the water, in addition to the petroleum and other contaminants released by the ramshackle vessels themselves.

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  APPENDIX III

  Edicts Concerning Activities In and Around the Ocean

  (Addendum #2 to Declaration of Ocean Independence)

  A new method of worldwide policing of ocean waters is hereby established under the auspices of a Sea Warrior division known as the Ocean Management Authority (OMA). There will be severe penalties for infractions. All new rules will be as black and white as possible, without the legal loopholes that clever attorneys have been so adept at exploiting for their various greedy clients. There will be minimal negotiations involving any of these matters. For the most part, the OMA will make its pronouncements, and each one of them will be final.

  In order to deal with special needs around the world, there will be teams set up by the Ocean Management Authority to address specific problems in such unique and environmentally critical areas as the Antarctic, the Caribbean, the Great Barrier Reef, the Gulf of Mexico, and even the Mississippi River, which flows into the sea. Nations will be expected to not only comply with rules that directly involve activities on or near the sea, but will be forced to comply with land-based requirements, to prevent the air pollution which is detrimental to the health of the ocean—and to the entire planet. In some cases, river dams will be ordered destroyed, so that fish can again migrate upstream to their historical spawning grounds. No longer will human needs trump those of marine organisms.

  Some nations will claim such measures are draconian; others will say they are desperately needed. But no matter what any human beings say, the edicts of the OMA will become the law of the world. This is the new reality, and those who readily accept will be far better off than those we must deal with in severe ways. Standards of living will diminish in many so-called “advanced” nations as their luxuries are whittled away, but we are confident that human society will find ways to adjust in this regard. As a consequence, marine life will enjoy the benefits, and in effect, the “standard of living” for ocean organisms will improve as that of humans declines, and justifiably so.

  This document does not purport to specify all of the remedies that are required in order to restore the world’s marine environment to health—except to stipulate that all future human actions involving the ocean in any way will now require the advance approval of the Sea Warriors. Depending upon how much of an emergency each particular situation is, there will be timetables for compliance, ranging from a few weeks or months for critical matters to as much as 50 years. By the end of that 50 year period, every human society on the planet must be in full compliance with the requirements of the Ocean Management Authority.

  In the future, there could be a reward system for those individuals, companies, and governments that show the most concern for the ocean—but the history of human transgressions is so egregious that it will be at least 10 years before anything like that is considered.

  Based upon circumstances, special teams of the Ocean Management Authority will determine timetables all over the world for the following categories, and will notify local authorities of their final decisions. No timetable will be longer than 50 years.

  I. Dumping at Sea and Carelessness.

  Severity Level—Extremely High.

  Effective immediately, nothing may be dumped in the world’s ocean (or in any river, stream, or outfall that flows into the ocean)—not from any shore nor from any watercraft, nor by any other means. All garbage, by-products and other materials that human civilization generates are considered foreign to the ocean, and shall be dealt with by human beings on the land, so that they do not adversely affect the ocean.

  Everything that has previously been left in the ocean by humans, including (but not limited to) shipwrecks, plastics, fishing nets, gear, and traps, shall be removed by humans, under the supervision of the Sea Warriors. While some of these items have already been brought up from the seabed by marine animals and deposited on the shores, much more remains to be done—centuries and centuries of filth left behind by human beings.

  II. Overfishing, Hunting, and Gathering.

  Severity Level—High for Some Species.

  Effective immediately, except as permitted under close Sea Warrior supervision, nothing belonging to the ocean may be taken by humans from the waters for any purpose, or harmed in any other way. There will be no more killing and stuffing of trophy fish, turtles, or any other marine animals. Commercial, private, and sport fishing is banned, including (but not limited to) whaling, tuna-seining, crabbing, lobstering, and any other endeavor that involves the removal of living organisms from the ocean. This includes bans on the collection of sea cucumbers and seaweed, and on the collection of shellfish by any means. No more abalone, clams, oysters, mussels, or geoducks will be harvested from the wild. Nothing whatsoever may be taken without Sea Warrior approval.

  Some aquaculture operations will be allowed, but all such operations will be strictly supervised by the Sea Warriors, to prevent the transfer of infectious viruses, parasites, genetic contamination, and other problems that have caused so much harm to wild species in the past. Fish farms will no longer be permitted to use wild fish as food—the farms will need to be completely self-contained, and non-intrusive into natural waters, except that they will be allowed to use natural seawater to fill the fully-enclosed pens—and nothing can be emptied from those pens back into natural waters. All waste products will have to be hauled inland to approved dump sites.

  Around the world, a few traditional fishing methods may be permitted, and will be considered by the OMA on a case by case basis. Some that are under consideration are the Arab method of catching cuttlefish with hooks on long h
andles, spearfishing by African coastal villagers, South Sea islander methods of diving for fish and shellfish, Native American fishing, and even a very small amount of Native American whaling—such as by the Salish tribes of the Pacific Coast, and by the Inuit or Eskimo people of the Arctic. The Inuit might also be permitted to harvest a small number of seals and walruses for food, and for animal skins, which have been used traditionally for tents and cold-weather garments.

  No native peoples anywhere in the world will be allowed to use guns or any fishing gear or other equipment that is not approved by the OMA. And, while it is known that some people have used fishing nets traditionally, the OMA will be very cautious in allowing any of this in the future—because of the slippery slope it could provide, in which nets eventually get larger and more efficient.

  III. Mining Problems.

  Severity Level—High.

  Subject to phasing down, in a timetable established by OMA, all mining operations described in this section will gradually be prohibited from occurring in or near the ocean (including on and under its seabed), and this prohibition will extend to connecting bodies of water and waterways. At the end of the specified period, there shall be no mining activities whatsoever in these areas. This prohibition includes (but is not limited to) manganese, gold, and copper, which have previously been mined in large amounts.

  IV. Noise Pollution.

  Severity Level—Extremely High.

  Effective immediately, no explosives of any kind may be set off in ocean waters, nor shall there be any nuclear testing, sonar testing, or any other activity that casts noise over or through the water above decibel levels that are to be established for various locales around the world.