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While southern California’s coastal waters are healthier than they were two decades ago, this month’s Orange County oil spill underscores the vulnerability of the region’s marine life – and helps make bring to the surface the continuing threats of climate change and contamination from various sources.
State policies – some used as models around the world – and more stringent federal regulations have steadily improved the region’s ocean water quality, habitat for marine life, and coastal protections over this period. century.
But the environmental horizon does not bode well, say environmentalists.
“For all intents and purposes, the health of California’s oceans is better than it was 20 years ago, but there is a caveat,” said Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, Coastal Preservation Officer for the Surfrider Foundation . “Mother Nature and climate change are changing faster than our laws and policies. “
Contaminated urban runoff into the ocean continues to be a problem, and plastic waste has an increasing impact on marine life, including breaking down into microplastics that end up in the aquatic food chain and in seafood consumed by humans. .
But experts say the most worrying threats to the ocean and coastline are directly linked to man-made climate change.
“These climate-related issues are going to get worse, and we’ve done a horrible job of solving them,” said Richard Ambrose, coastal environmentalist at UCLA.
Scrambled ecosystems
The same greenhouse gases responsible for warming the Earth’s atmosphere affect ocean waters. Average ocean temperatures rose between 0.6 and 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit from 1971 to 2010, and are expected to rise up to 7 degrees by 2100, according to the 2018 interagency. National climate assessment.
The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also increases carbon levels in the ocean. The result, an effect known as ocean acidification, is best known to kill coral, but it also makes shellfish growth more difficult for most shellfish. Additionally, climate change is reducing oxygen levels in the sea, a change that particularly affects deep-sea marine life.
“People have heard that coral reefs are hurting, but they don’t know their own backyard ecosystems are hurting too,” said Kristen Davis, head of the Coastal Dynamics Lab at UC Irvine.
The consequences include the loss of kelp forests and other vital habitats, the displacement of species in search of cooler places or more oxygenated waters, and the scrambling of ecosystems and food chain hierarchies. , including human access to seafood. Climate-induced sea level rise will increasingly threaten not only the habitat of coastal wildlife, but also buildings and other human infrastructure.
The Orange County oil spill offers a temporary glimpse into life with dramatically reduced coastal tourism, recreation and commercial fishing options, impacts that could return permanently as the effect of climate change on l the ocean is increasing.
That’s why reducing greenhouse gas emissions is high on the to-do list for many coastal conservationists – and why the spill is amplifying calls to end offshore drilling.
“Marine life is feeling the pressure of warming waters and rising sea levels, but we can’t see it,” Davis said. “If the oil spill can make people more aware of the other effects of fossil fuels, that would help. This oil spill is only one of the threats.
Reason to hope
Davis is among those who see past progress as cause for optimism in solving current and future marine problems, including those related to the climate.
“We have seen that we can improve the ocean,” she said. “It gives me hope that we can do more in the future.”
The Federal Clean Water Act of 1977 was a key step towards cleaning up coastal waters, helping to increase regulations governing the pumping of sewage into the ocean.
“Originally, (the sewage) was not treated at all,” said Ambrose of UCLA. “Now almost every plant in Southern California has advanced treatment.”
California Marine Protection Act 1999 was the country’s first comprehensive and scientific state law requiring the establishment of marine protected areas with protections against fishing and other offshore activities as well as increased safeguards against sewage and other contaminated runoff. About 16% of the state’s coastal waters are in marine protected areas, helping to restore overexploited species and fortify declining habitats.
The program is world-renowned and offers a model of what the state should do for all of its coastal waters, according to Surfrider’s Sekich-Quinn. Currently, Orange County has a Marine Protected Area stretching from Crystal Cove to Dana Point, and Los Angeles County has one off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The State Coastal Commission, established in 1972, and its 1976 Coastal Enabling Act, have the merit of protecting coastal resources and public access to them.
“That’s why we’re not like New Jersey or South Florida, where they have huge buildings on the beach,” Sekich-Quinn said, referring to the California coast. “For this reason, we are in a better position to deal with rising sea levels.”
Efforts to reduce contaminated urban runoff and ocean-related plastic waste have been less successful but continue to expand.
From 1990 when Heal the Bay began publishing comprehensive water quality data for Southern California beaches, until 2015 water quality has steadily improved, but progress have since stagnated. As regulators call on cities and counties to do more to tackle polluted runoff, and Los Angeles County voters approved a 2018 property tax increase for this purpose, Luke Ginger of Heal the Bay said there was “still important work to be done”.
Emerging efforts to stop the flow of plastic into the ocean include a ban on single-use plastic bags in grocery stores, ratified by voters in 2016, and a 2018 law restricting the distribution of plastic straws in restaurants. Governor Gavin Newsom this month enacted a measure expanding restrictions on plastic straw to include plastic utensils and condiment wrappers. And next year voters could see a ballot measure calling for all single-use disposable packaging and single-use disposable food items to be compostable or recyclable.
The big problem
While past policies have improved the region’s coastal waters, environmentalists say those efforts are on the verge of being overtaken by issues related to climate change.
“My worry is that we are winning the battle but losing the war,” said George Leonard, chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy.
Even the recent oil spill should ultimately be left in the rearview mirror. While full recovery of damaged wetlands could take three to four decades, ocean habitat is expected to recover within five to ten years, according to UCLA’s Ambrose.
But the solution to preventing future spills is the same as the response needed to reduce climate change, activists and experts say.
“We need to stop extracting and using fossil fuels,” Leonard said. “This will end CO2 and methane emissions and all environmental justice concerns associated with the industry. Obviously, it’s a big elevator. And we need to be concerned about unintended consequences – (for example) mining deep sea minerals for electric car batteries as a climate solution. But this is ultimately the root and where it all begins.
Leonard is among those who attribute almost all of the negative impacts on the ocean – even overfishing – to fossil fuels.
“One of the main drivers of overcapacity globally is government subsidies to their international fishing fleets,” he said. “Often it’s about fuel subsidies, which makes it artificially cheap to travel great distances to catch fish.
“The oil on Huntington Beach is a local tragedy,” added Leonard. “But the extraction of fossil fuels has an impact on the oceans on a global scale. Overfishing, plastic pollution, climate change – every problem in the ocean is linked to fossil fuels. “
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