Daniel Pauly On The Ocean's Shifting Baseline

We transform the world, but we don't remember it. We adjust our baseline to the new level, and we don't recall what was there
  — Daniel Pauly

Here is a short TED talk by marine biologist Daniel Pauly. Pauly is a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia and the principal investigator of its Sea Around Us Project.

The ocean has degraded within our lifetimes, as shown in the decreasing average size of fish. And yet, as Daniel Pauly shows us onstage at Mission Blue, each time the baseline drops, we call it the new "normal." At what point do we stop readjusting downward?

 

Comments

[adam]

Marine protected areas really are quite different. I have snorkeled at Three Tables and I have snorkeled at Lanikai, both on Oahu. The difference is shocking. Lots of big fish vs. a few small fish.

If we CAN "recreate the past" - that is, recreate the conditions of abundance and health - we have a moral duty to do so. Realistically? Well, look at what's happening to the wolves in the American West - get them back to somewhat like normal numbers and every rancher and hunter wants to shoot them back into extinction.