Whales show we can flip climate change
HUMPBACK whales are thriving again, showing the world’s oceans can be restored to health within 30 years, delighted experts said yesterday.
The most important first step, they say, is for nations to work together to tame climate change.
Since commercial whaling was banned in 1986, humpback numbers have returned to about 90 per cent of their pre-hunting population.
But the Blue Planet’s seas are under intense pressure from pollution, climate change and overfishing.
About eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year while warming seas are killing coral and turning the oceans acidic, which is threatening crustaceans at the base of the food chain. Groups from 10 countries, including a team from York University, said the recovery was positive news.
Their study said: “The evidence – along with particularly spectacular cases of recovery, such as the example of humpback whales – highlights that the abundance of marine life can be restored.”
Experts said “substantial recovery” could happen within two to three decades for most marine life “provided that climate change is tackled and efficient interventions are deployed at large scale”.
The report said governments should focus on nine key areas “integral to rebuilding marine life” – salt marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, coral reefs, kelp, oyster reefs, fisheries, megafauna and the deep sea.
If that happened, evidence showed marine life “can be recovered within one human generation, or two to three decades, by 2050.”
Lead co-author Professor Carlos Duarte of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) said: “We have a narrow window of opportunity to deliver a healthy ocean to our grandchildren’s generation and we have the knowledge and tools to do so.
“Failing to embrace this challenge – and in so doing condemning our grandchildren to a broken ocean unable to support high-quality livelihoods – is not an option.
“We are at a point where we can choose between a legacy of a resilient and vibrant ocean or an irreversibly disrupted ocean.”
Researchers said although mankind has greatly damaged marine life, there was evidence of “remarkable resilience” and “an emerging shift” compared with the losses of the last century.
Fellow co-author, Kaust professor and oceanographer Susana Agusti said: “Rebuilding marine life represents a do-able grand challenge for humanity, an ethical obligation and a smart economic objective to achieve a sustainable future.”
The study was published in the journal Nature.