AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi
DCL
Why a 400 Million-Year-Old Fish is a Compelling Reason to Protect the Oceans from Trawling
Eco-savvy readers might already know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the ongoing threat to coral reefs, and the frightening reality that 90% of the large fish in the ocean are already gone. But how many of you greenies know about the coelacanth, a.k.a. Dino Fish?
Until 1938, when a live specimen was caught, the coelacanth was thought to have been extinct for about 90 million years. Coelacanths--which can swim forward, backward, upside down, and on their heads--are often called living fossils or a Lazarus species, e.g. an animal or plant which disappears from the fossil record, presumably because it is extinct, and then reappears.
The green paradox involving the coelacanth is that it was discovered thanks to deep sea fishing methods--and similar methods are still devastating vast swaths of the ocean now. In fact, all the coelacanths found today are caught up thanks to modern trawling techniques. Hassan Kolombo, coordinator of the Tanga Coastal Zone Conservation and Development Program, said, "Once we do not have trawlers, we don't get the coelacanths, it's as simple as that."
Some potential good news for the coelacanth and its scaly comrades: Thanks to the diligence of ocean activists, bottom trawling has been banned in parts of the South Pacific. This is a major step forward in the protection of biodiversity on the high seas," declares Matthew Gianni of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. "It can be done, it has been done, and it's time for all countries to do the same in all other ocean regions."
What can you do to stop ocean trawling
Oceana also has a stop-trawling campaign you can support and/or get involved with. Of course, a more direct route to ending the practice of deep sea trawling would be for each of us to reduce or eliminate our consumption of fish. Such collective efforts will protect the oceans and the hidden, mysterious species that call it home. Can you imagine if all this happened thanks to a 400 million-year-old fish that can swim on its head?