Expert speaks up for world’s oceans
The world’s oceans are not beyond recovery despite many being in a perilous state from overfishing and pollution, a New Plymouth-born, internationallyrenowned whale shark researcher says.
Marine biologist Simon Pierce travels the world researching marine ecosystems, in particular whale sharks in Mozambique and the Galapagos Islands. He is back in his home town for a month and will speak about his experiences with 20-metre-long, planktoneating whale sharks.
‘‘They’re massive but pretty docile,’’ he said.
‘‘We have significant problems in the sea with plastic pollution, fertiliser runoff, oxygen deprivation, over fishing and removal of predators,’’ Pierce said.
‘‘New Zealand is better off than most countries because we have been forward thinking with our sustainable fishing policy, but we still have issues to sort such as minimising the by-catch.
‘‘We have been the pioneers of sustainable fishing with marine protected areas but there is still much to do. There are still Hector’s dolphins being caught in gill nets.’’
There ‘‘dead’’ zones in the Gulf of Mexico, Oman and the eastern Pacific and the removal of predators in the food chain from illegal fishing had destabilised the ecosystem, he said.
Pierce became interested in whale sharks after being invited to study them in Mozambique by a colleague, Andrea Marshall.
The pair later formed the Marine Megafauna Foundation to help fund world-wide marine research.
It was love at first sight after seeing his first whale shark, he said. ‘‘They are the last of any big animal you can still get up close to.’’
While whale sharks spend most of the time in the tropics, they have been known to travel 10,000km in a year, with some seen in New Zealand waters.
‘‘They are mind blowing but you are completely safe if you keep you distance, at least 4m from the tail.’’
Pierce also became fascinated with great white sharks after his first encounter with the apex predator on his first solo dive in Mozambique.
‘‘It came up close and had a look at me and then kept going.
‘‘Sharks in general get a bad rap which is disproportionate to the threat they pose.
‘‘A lot of them haven’t seen humans before and are just really interested.’’