Turning the Tide

Our oceans are in trouble, says Nancy Knowlton. But it's not too late to do something about it

  • By Cate Lineberry
  • Smithsonian.com, September 24, 2007, Subscribe
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(Eric Jaffe)

Nancy Knowlton was the founding director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography before being hired in 2007 to lead the Smithsonian's Ocean Initiative. As part of this initiative, Knowlton will oversee a new research program and will help develop an ocean Web portal. Knowlton tells Smithsonian.com the problems facing the ocean today—and what we can do to save it.

What is the state of the ocean today?

It's actually very bad. It's probably worse in many ways than the state of conservation on land, but we don't think about it because we don't live in it.

Basically it comes down to what we put into the atmosphere and ocean and what we take out of the ocean. What we put into the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which makes the ocean hotter. And when it dissolves in the oceans themselves, it makes them more acidic. From the land, you're getting all this runoff into the oceans—vast amounts of nutrients associated with excess fertilizer, pesticides, industrial waste, waste from cars and city streets. There's a lot of stuff that fertilizes the ocean and causes bacteria and other slimy stuff to proliferate, plus things that actually poison the ocean.

We also have the massive scale of fisheries. We're pulling out the tops of the food chain. Most of the big fish in the ocean are already gone. We've also strip-mined the bottom of the sea floor with trawls.

We've basically created a massive disturbance to the ocean, which is resulting in collapsing ecosystems, failing fisheries, toxic blooms.

When did scientists realize the damage we're causing the ocean?

In the last 50 years, things have really deteriorated. People have had some impact for a long time, but the ocean can suffer a certain amount of assault from human activity and not have a major problem with it. Now everything is increasing. Carbon dioxide is increasing dramatically. Industrial fisheries, since about the 1950s, have increased dramatically.

We're starting to really reach what people sometimes call a "tipping point," where whole ecosystems slip into much, much less desirable states. For example, many coral reefs around the world have gone from coral reefs to a rubble bottom covered with seaweed, with very little living coral. That's happened place after place after place.

The ocean is so big that most of the ocean bottom has never even been examined, and we're destroying it. Even presumably well-known marine creatures are not nearly as well-known as we think they are. For example, it's only in the last 20 years that we found out that common mussels that we used to think were one species are actually three species. Turns out there are multiple species of killer whales, not one. And there are vast numbers of species that have never been catalogued or described.

How will these changes affect the planet?

The oceans provide a lot of important things to people. In many places, seafood is the most important high-quality protein. A lot of countries, the United States included, depend on coastal activities for tourism. A big chunk of the world's population—somewhere close to 50 percent—lives close to the oceans. So when the oceans don't work the way they should, there are all sorts of impacts economically and also aesthetically. When beaches are closed due to toxic blooms, it has an economic impact, and it diminishes people's quality of life.

And the idea that people could have such a devastating impact that they rival the effects of an asteroid hitting the planet, in terms of extinction and ecosystem collapse, is upsetting, even apart from the strictly dollars and cents issue.

What can people do to save the ocean?

You can reduce your ecological footprint. If everyone individually were to really take serious steps in terms of energy conservation, we wouldn't solve the CO2 problem, but we'd make an important contribution.

It's not just what we can do ourselves. If the United States takes CO2 seriously, we'll pave the way for other countries to do it.

You can also support industries that are environmentally progressive.

What will happen if changes aren't made?

A lot of the damage has already been done. Every year in the Gulf of Mexico, there's a giant dead zone that forms. The North Atlantic cod collapse cost a fortune in lost jobs in northern New England and Canada, and it's never really recovered. Without action, it's all going to keep getting worse. More fisheries are going to collapse. The beaches will be unusable. It's pretty bad. We have to do something.

What species are in the most trouble?

There's real concern the white abalone could go extinct. The same goes for some shark species, some species of marine mammals and some corals. Once things get really rare, males and females can't find each other to mate. So even though there a few individuals left, they don't reproduce and eventually the population dwindles to extinction. Or, if things really get rare, other things take their place, so it's harder for them to build back up in the ecosystem.

Are there any ocean conservation success stories?

There are lots of waterways that are being cleaned up. Also, there are more marine protected areas, which are a big tool we have to manage things effectively. One-third of the Great Barrier Reef is now a no-take marine reserve. Similarly, the Northwest Hawaiian Islands have been brought into a major reserve system. And California now has a new reserve system. So people are really starting to effectively protect marine areas, which I think is probably one of the most important things we can do for the short term.

There's a lot to be done still. Some fisheries have started to come back, and some fisheries are much better managed than they used to be. It's slow getting people to do things, so the first step is for people to realize the problem. The public awareness of issues associated with climate change has increased enormously in the last five years. But that's the first step. Just being aware of the problem isn't going to solve it.


Nancy Knowlton was the founding director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography before being hired in 2007 to lead the Smithsonian's Ocean Initiative. As part of this initiative, Knowlton will oversee a new research program and will help develop an ocean Web portal. Knowlton tells Smithsonian.com the problems facing the ocean today—and what we can do to save it.

What is the state of the ocean today?

It's actually very bad. It's probably worse in many ways than the state of conservation on land, but we don't think about it because we don't live in it.

Basically it comes down to what we put into the atmosphere and ocean and what we take out of the ocean. What we put into the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which makes the ocean hotter. And when it dissolves in the oceans themselves, it makes them more acidic. From the land, you're getting all this runoff into the oceans—vast amounts of nutrients associated with excess fertilizer, pesticides, industrial waste, waste from cars and city streets. There's a lot of stuff that fertilizes the ocean and causes bacteria and other slimy stuff to proliferate, plus things that actually poison the ocean.

We also have the massive scale of fisheries. We're pulling out the tops of the food chain. Most of the big fish in the ocean are already gone. We've also strip-mined the bottom of the sea floor with trawls.

We've basically created a massive disturbance to the ocean, which is resulting in collapsing ecosystems, failing fisheries, toxic blooms.

When did scientists realize the damage we're causing the ocean?

In the last 50 years, things have really deteriorated. People have had some impact for a long time, but the ocean can suffer a certain amount of assault from human activity and not have a major problem with it. Now everything is increasing. Carbon dioxide is increasing dramatically. Industrial fisheries, since about the 1950s, have increased dramatically.

We're starting to really reach what people sometimes call a "tipping point," where whole ecosystems slip into much, much less desirable states. For example, many coral reefs around the world have gone from coral reefs to a rubble bottom covered with seaweed, with very little living coral. That's happened place after place after place.

The ocean is so big that most of the ocean bottom has never even been examined, and we're destroying it. Even presumably well-known marine creatures are not nearly as well-known as we think they are. For example, it's only in the last 20 years that we found out that common mussels that we used to think were one species are actually three species. Turns out there are multiple species of killer whales, not one. And there are vast numbers of species that have never been catalogued or described.

How will these changes affect the planet?

The oceans provide a lot of important things to people. In many places, seafood is the most important high-quality protein. A lot of countries, the United States included, depend on coastal activities for tourism. A big chunk of the world's population—somewhere close to 50 percent—lives close to the oceans. So when the oceans don't work the way they should, there are all sorts of impacts economically and also aesthetically. When beaches are closed due to toxic blooms, it has an economic impact, and it diminishes people's quality of life.

And the idea that people could have such a devastating impact that they rival the effects of an asteroid hitting the planet, in terms of extinction and ecosystem collapse, is upsetting, even apart from the strictly dollars and cents issue.

What can people do to save the ocean?

You can reduce your ecological footprint. If everyone individually were to really take serious steps in terms of energy conservation, we wouldn't solve the CO2 problem, but we'd make an important contribution.

It's not just what we can do ourselves. If the United States takes CO2 seriously, we'll pave the way for other countries to do it.

You can also support industries that are environmentally progressive.

What will happen if changes aren't made?

A lot of the damage has already been done. Every year in the Gulf of Mexico, there's a giant dead zone that forms. The North Atlantic cod collapse cost a fortune in lost jobs in northern New England and Canada, and it's never really recovered. Without action, it's all going to keep getting worse. More fisheries are going to collapse. The beaches will be unusable. It's pretty bad. We have to do something.

What species are in the most trouble?

There's real concern the white abalone could go extinct. The same goes for some shark species, some species of marine mammals and some corals. Once things get really rare, males and females can't find each other to mate. So even though there a few individuals left, they don't reproduce and eventually the population dwindles to extinction. Or, if things really get rare, other things take their place, so it's harder for them to build back up in the ecosystem.

Are there any ocean conservation success stories?

There are lots of waterways that are being cleaned up. Also, there are more marine protected areas, which are a big tool we have to manage things effectively. One-third of the Great Barrier Reef is now a no-take marine reserve. Similarly, the Northwest Hawaiian Islands have been brought into a major reserve system. And California now has a new reserve system. So people are really starting to effectively protect marine areas, which I think is probably one of the most important things we can do for the short term.

There's a lot to be done still. Some fisheries have started to come back, and some fisheries are much better managed than they used to be. It's slow getting people to do things, so the first step is for people to realize the problem. The public awareness of issues associated with climate change has increased enormously in the last five years. But that's the first step. Just being aware of the problem isn't going to solve it.

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Comments (15)

i like ur topic and the way u carried. wish u all the best.

Posted by raghbendra shah on February 9,2009 | 08:38 AM

Its quite interesting, i would l love to have a copy of this, if you dont mind

Posted by Usen Ofonime Emmanuel on February 5,2009 | 08:08 AM

Dear Nancy, I work on waste management of various sectors , mostly on the cities situated on shorelines of India , sometimes in the near vicinity of Ramsar Convention declared lake site and back waters . The concerned law does not allow such establishment of facilities in the zone , but this happens when law makers become a law breaker. In this scenerio can an uniform environmental regulation usher in a situation when development can coexist with environment and sustinability. Thanks and regards, JP Ghosh

Posted by JP Ghosh on January 8,2009 | 02:54 AM

I have a question rather than a comment, if I may? How old is the ocean????

Posted by frank jaworski on January 3,2009 | 08:49 PM

Global warming is a great harm to our present as well as future. We need to stop it somehow but the present need is to stop it.

Posted by Sumantra Thapa on January 2,2009 | 05:51 AM

Respected madam I done a ph.d at marine biology and oceanography 1997. Now i am NGO Director working at coastal village of Tanjor AND Pudkkottai District continouslly awarness program for coastal fisherman community people with MARINE PRODUCTS EXPORT DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY COCHIN

Posted by Dr.kanagaraj joseph on December 19,2008 | 01:44 AM

Respected madam, i like your programe too much as i am marine biologist. working on the marine environment assessment studies in gulf of kachchh, gujarat, india. can u suggest me some initiative which i can try to implement at local levels to save our highly valued ocean. wish u all the best for programme. regards Hitesh Kardani researcher, Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, Bhuj

Posted by hiteshkardani on December 9,2008 | 01:10 AM

hello, I am doing my PhD in marine biology... n working on pollution aspect of the sea.I will be highly obliged if I am able help you in some way. Thanks

Posted by Neeta Jadhav on September 9,2008 | 04:32 PM

thank u nancy, i am not having deep knowledge about the oceans and other things, but what important is, we all should group together and save this world. we all want to save this world from the disaster.

Posted by balasubramaniam on June 25,2008 | 03:51 AM

Hi....really nice to look u'r program save the oceans,,i want to join in u'r program,i know i can't change the world but maybe i can do little for my oceans..thank's coZ u'r idea make mre care about my OCEANS.

Posted by dwi on June 18,2008 | 10:46 AM

Hi, I am glad to see this web. I am also proud myself that to participate here. I also worry about our environment, especially for our oceans. Now the world become hotter and hotter and people around the world often suffer some the unusual state of the weather or natural. I made a presentation in my class concerning with this topic. Although we don't notice about that, many of the creatures in the sea and oceans suffer the result of putting without caring anything. I also want to serve the duty of the flawless fishes in the ocean. I will if I have a chance. Yours sincerely, Saw Chan Thar Oo

Posted by Mr. Saw Chan Thar Oo on June 18,2008 | 04:51 AM

I really like your work. The ocean is an important aspect to my life aswell as the life forms in it. If one of the animals that live in there today became extinct imagined what would happen to our ecosystem. The reason the ocean is so important to me is because of my family holidays. Our family fights. ALOT. The ocean on our holiddays calm us down for atleast four weeks and with out some small amount of peace i would not be able to stand life. So keep up our ecosystem and one day when i am old enough i will try to help.

Posted by Jessie Lawrence on June 16,2008 | 01:05 AM

i really worried about our responsibility inour future

Posted by d.jaiganesh on May 21,2008 | 08:31 AM

here i want to say that, the pollution is very big and huge problem for the existence of ocean in our world, why the world health organization not take care for the future problem. So, this is the my special suggestion that we must be do the better work for the environmental conservation and secure the ocean world. We can decline the air pollution and water pollution and stop the Industries in all over the world.

Posted by rocky ahuja on May 17,2008 | 10:21 AM



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