Deep Water
Julian Caldecott and Melanie Salmon
Reviewed by David Cromwell
Ellipsis (London), 128pp.
ISBN 1-899858-79-2
The first collapse of a Caribbean coral reef was reported in the journal Nature earlier this year. Scientists documented a mass die-off in the central barrier reef off Belize following the highest sea temperatures recorded there two years ago. 1998 was, in fact, the hottest on record in the tropical oceans of the world. The high temperatures were caused by a powerful combination of El Niņo and global warming. In the Pacific and Indian Oceans, extensive coral bleaching has already hit home.
What happens under coral bleaching? Marine biologists believe that high sea temperatures above 30 deg. C cause a breakdown of the symbiotic relationship between the coral animals or polyps, resembling small anemones, and the photosynthetic algae known as zooxanthellae that live in the animals' tissues and provide the polyps with energy. Simply put, coral bleaching is a signature of the awesome capacity for humanity to ravage the planet.
Deep Water is therefore a timely reminder of the beauty of the oceans and the life they support, but also of the threats posed by pollution, overfishing and other human activities. The authors, Julian Caldecott and Melanie Salmon, are well placed to reveal the amazing diversity, inter-dependency and fragility of ocean life, from the tiniest organisms to the magnificent whales that roam entire ocean basins. Caldecott is a biologist who has worked for 20 years on nature conservation in tropical lands and seas, as well as advising groups involved in conservation and sustainable development. Salmon, whose name and profession constitute a fine example of what New Scientist's light-hearted Feedback column calls 'nominative determinism', has worked for several leading marine environmental organisations, and is the founder of Global Ocean, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of marine life.
I may be an oceanographer, but really I'm just a physicist who stumbled upon the subject of the oceans. I had no idea, for example, that an incredible eighty per cent of the world's biodiversity lives in the sea. I knew that, every night, there are marine creatures that migrate upwards in the water column to feed in food-rich surface layers, then retreat to deeper levels as dawn breaks before predators can find them in the daylight. Indeed, I had seen evidence of this with my own eyes while undertaking research at sea. But I was amazed to learn that tiny, two-millimetre copepods travel 500 metres twice a day: the equivalent of a human running a marathon before breakfast and another after supper! Nor did I know that, from the toxin of the cone shell, scientists are developing a pain killer one hundred times more effective than morphine. Who knows what other medical treasures may be out there in the seven seas?
Deep Water is crammed full of amazing facts that illustrate the age-old life dilemmas of feeding, moving around, staying alive and finding a mate. Take sex, for instance. For some species, encounters between individuals are few and far between. Nature has, of course, come up with ingenious solutions to ensure propagation. For example, when two male flatworms off eastern Australia meet, they fence with their penises to determine who should be the female. The loser is injected with the victor's sperm. A sobering thought indeed.
But the book goes beyond a mere parade of the weird and the wonderful. The authors rightly tackle the impact of human activities on the ocean and the life therein. Here, there is much to shock the reader. How many people are aware that as much as one-third of the world's fishing catch is thrown back in the sea, dead or dying? Or that purse seines, used to catch tuna and which operate like drawstring bags, have probably killed around 10 million dolphins in the last decade? And then there is the smorgasbord of human-induced marine pollution: nuclear, oil, chemical and household, even noise. As Caldecott and Salmon state with passion: 'It makes no sense to harvest productive fisheries to death, or to pollute our common home.' It may not make sense, but there is much short-term profit at stake. Consequently, there is the real prospect that business as usual is even overheating the planet and intensifying climate patterns: 'If our actions - large-scale air pollution, felling the rain forests, dumping waste in the ocean - show even the slightest likelihood of increasing the intensity of El Niņo, then we would be foolish to continue along such a path.'
This is where I feel the book comes unstuck. Who is the 'we' in such statements? Is everyone equally responsible, or are some - with their hand on the till of the global economy, and driven all too often by power, greed and ignorance - more culpable than others? Certainly, the authors are right to remind us that: 'Individuals make a difference - power is not only for those who make laws or run international corporations.' But are the measures that individuals are encouraged to take here up to the task? Will a mix of green consumerism (choosing organic and/or local produce), voting for the most pro-environment politicians available (but what a dismal selection!) and 'actively seeking ways to make a contribution with our family or with our friends' do the job? I have my doubts. The missing element in the book's argument is to set the campaign for protection of the oceans alongside other grassroots movements working for action to tackle climate change, homelessness, poverty, human rights abuses and so on. In other words, what is lacking in the book's final pages is an overarching framework that challenges economic globalisation and the mantra of 'international competitiveness' which has been so damaging to jobs, health and the global environment. What is needed instead is a broad, community-based movement - from the labour, third world development, environmental and other constituencies - which will claw back the political and economic power that has been ceded to centralised governments, regional blocs and transnational corporations, if we are ever to have strong local communities and economies, and protected ecosystems.
Such reservations aside, Deep Water is a highly recommended addition to any library, beautifully illustrated throughout and with text in English, French and Spanish. There is also an extensive contact list of organisations and individuals working in marine conservation. Now, if they could all just link up with the wider movement to protect people and the planet in the face of destructive globalisation.
David Cromwell
19 August, 2000
-medialens-