Share Your Thoughts

Welcome to the Los Angeles Times' 'Altered Oceans' message board. 'Altered Oceans' is a five-part series on the crisis in our seas and how its transformation affects us all. This message board is a forum for you, our readers, to express your concerns or share your own expreiences and observations on the subject of our changing oceans.

UPDATE: Ken Weiss plans to write about ways to ease the stress on the seas. Read Ken's message to readers here.

Comments will be moderated for profanity and will not appear until they've been approved, so please post only once. Offensive or off-topic comments will be deleted. Here are the full legal terms.

Comments

[Los Angeles Times]

The discussion board is now closed. Thank you for your comments.

[Sean Farrer]

The better we educate people and the faster we do it, the sooner we will help rejuvinate the damages we have already done.

We can't as humans keep polluting our environment. It was the only free thing we had given too us. Everything each and everyone of us can do will help. ie recycle and only purchase eco-friendly products, they may cost a little more in the short term.

[quinzz]

This may sound weird but please bare with me. I live in the prairies, Edmonton Alberta Canada to be exact. Many people here seem to suffer simultaneously from sinus relate problems. Sneezing, Sinus infections, running nose, itching eye's etc.. .They say perhaps its snow mold, when the snow melts theres a mold left on the grass underneath. To me the symptoms get worse when the wind is blowing. But what strikes me is the similar effect from what was described by red tide in this video. People here use allot of pesticides & fertilizer and there is farm land on every side of the city. Also there are many oil refineries near the city. Sometimes I cant help but think the toxic red tide is a cousin of snow mold or other toxic mold etc.. that gets airborne in spores from mold from farmers fields, grass etc.. Perhaps this mold is getting more toxic (not unlike like red tide algae ) because of pollution, pesticides and or nutrients from fertilizers etc...

Anybody care to comment on this?

[Adam Smith]

Dear Free Markets Work,

I appreciate you weighing in for the free market and trusting that it will create a solution to the problem of the killing of the oceans, but you missed a crucial aspect that drives the theory of the invisible hand: in order for the theory to hold, EVERYTHING must have a price. Allow me to explain:

Let's take farmers for example: Farmer A uses traditional commercal fertilizer which is relatively cheap and allows him a handsome profit. Unconcerned or unaware of the effects of the runoff from his farm he has not considered switching to organic practices. Farmer B is well informed and has decided to go organic. For this he is penalized by paying more for fertilizer and makes a decidedly smaller profit than Farmer A.

How will the invisible hand cause Farmer A to go organic? It cannot. In fact, the theory holds that instead Farmer B will eventually abandon his organic practices for those that will bring him a higher profit.

The solution lies in pricing all aspects of the farming process, including pollution created. Identifying the connection between farm runoff and ecosystem destruction allows us to back out an appropriate price for, lets say, each pound of runoff. Equating that to the amount of fertilizer used allows us to decide an appropriate tax to apply to each type of fertilizer. With the taxes lower on the organic fertilizer, it now becomes an attractive option for all farmers, at which point the free market takes hold. Pollution pricing is a strong incentive for corporations to factor the environment into their business plans, and produces tangible results.

-KJM
“I’m universal on all planes, whats your claim?”

[Matt Horns]

This information on direct damage to the oceans from atmospheric CO2 makes what to do about global warming a moot question. We do not know with certainty what human-coused CO2 is doing to global climate and the Kyoto Protocol lets the potentially worst greenhouse gas offender off the hook. Kyoto and the other climate change programs and discussions promise decades of uncertainty and debate, which will do little to change anyone's behavior or to get any government or industry to change policies.

Now we know that the most prevalent greenhouse gas, CO2, threatens to destroy the marine ecosystem. Lets stop quibbling about climate change and do something about CO2.

[Colette Schamet]

I saw this documentary on LA Times website the day it was released. Very alarming! Ever since, I've been spreading the word. Most recently, I sent the link of this documentary to COOL Conserve Our Ocean Legacy Campaign in Washington DC, who, to my surprise, never heard or seen "Altered Oceans." YOU need to make a big effort to reach out and educate the whole nation and the whole world. This is a very powerful documentary, and it speaks for itself, it will make an impact. I wish you could do more to spread the word.
Colette

[Jill Clark]

How long (playing time) is each series segment?

Thanks

Jill

[Rajith Dissanayake]

It's a wonderful thing to see a US paper giving such high priority to Marine Conservation issues. To date not a single UK newspaper has highlighted these issues too prominently though one journalist from the UK Daily Telegraph has done some justice to the overfishing crisis. See the tuna page one web.mac.com/rajith

I uploaded the Monterey Bay seafood watch program on to YouTube along with another of their videos. Though explicitly designed for sharing freely, I fear I will be instructed to remove these videos (having sought permission). I'd like to give links to the LA Times info, but again, I'm only allowed to use the main LA Times domain name, so the Marine news will hardly appear when people link up. The only way I found this stuff was after a tip off from a woman at Monterey Bay during a random call.

I get mad about the inattention paid to the rights of fish, especially tuna which I regard as the most astonishing bony fish in the sea. Not a single comprehensive popular volume has yet been written on tuna. When people think of them, they think of them merely as food, not as living things. Thanks to BBCs Blue Planet which showed magnificient images of tuna some interest may be raised. Whenever I write to newspapers in the UK about the problems with sushi or tuna fishing - in as measured a tone as I can muster (and I'm quite good at getting letters published) they never get in. No one cares about the distress of tuna. After watching the jellyman film, I suppose I can safely say that those people care as much about tuna as I do about jellyfish that are the only things some people can catch now.

Tuna can't speak up for themselves. Some of us must do so on their behalf. Some people at the Natural History Museum London where I work think professor Jeremy Jackson is like Chicken Likken in the story about the sky falling on our heads - the evidence must be spread around.

Please, stand up for marine reserves and sustainable fishing. We have every right to eat chickens and pigs as we breed them and feed them and take care of them ... but we seem to assume we can steal from the sea without doing anything to replenish what we take out. Maybe someone could organise sea watching tourism. Movies, films, education, communication. Tuna look better alive than in a can. No books, no films and they remain just food. With books, films and management people will appreciate them even more for food as well if needed.

[Brett Young]

High praise for the LA Times for this piece-- top-of-the-line investigative journalism, truly Pulitzer-worthy.

Bear in mind that overpopulation of the earth, and sustainability of the ecosystem relating to that, are the greatest issues underlying this. As a youngster in the 1980s I recall learning that 4 billion people inhabited the earth, only to learn later in university that our numbers were then estimated to have just crossed the 6 billion barrier. How many people can live on earth in a sustainable fashion? Nobody knows... 10 billion? 50 billion? (the latter number being proposed by another professor of mine.) Competition for resources will only increase if the population increases, and the oceans will continue to suffer.

Know too that oil, and all of its related woes, isn`t disappearing anytime soon either. Something like 80% of American energy production is still nonrenewable, and nuclear power is falling out of fashion worldwide (with rare exceptions like France.) With the population going up, expect oil to be a critical component of the global economy for years to come.

Riding your bicycle to work, or buying an energy-efficient home, will help the problem. But by far the greatest impacts are made by corporations and governments worldwide. Don`t let them ignore this and continue to go about their business. Patronize companies and shops with an environmental agenda. Make noise so that politicians can`t put this on the back burner. Push for global treaties that work-- treaties more effective than the Kyoto Protocol (which ignores 2/5ths of the world`s people... better than nothing, but at a `get the ball rolling` level only perhaps.) The destruction of the world`s oceans by our hand is something we shouldn`t ignore, and eventually they won`t be able to ignore it any longer. Simply put: don`t let this issue go away.

[Royce Lam]

I go diving a lot and within the last few years I have seen a huge difference in the amount of life in the oceans off of California, especially in Laguna where just two years ago there was a thriving kelp forest, now its completely gone, replaced by sea urchins. I have also noticed a reduction in the number of fish and amount of kelp in these areas.

[Dean]

I'm always wondering why can't we just dump our trash and sewage deep underground, perhaps in empty pockets left over after all the oil was pumped out?

That seems like a very elegant solution to me but would love to hear arguments against it.

[KenO]

I've always liked seafood of all varieties. I don't think I'll be eating it anymore. It appears we're headed toward a 'soylent green' kind of a world.

[LL]

Please maintain this series' availability as long as possible. It is an effective referral tool to educate those who are either unaware or in denial with regard to the condition of our environment.

[l mckinnon]

i picked up garbage along a crescent city, ca shoreline today. Even along the remote north coast there is a lot of trash, especially plastics. what i'm doing isn't much, but it's better than doing nothing.

[Shawna]

I think that your killing our killer whales. It has more affect on them than it does on us...

[Mary Radavich]

Thanks to the LA Times for this great piece documentary info.

This is our greatest challenge. Forget Iraq,
al-Qaeda and the cost of gasoline. They will pale in contrast.

I would highly recommend everyone see Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". Republican, Democrat, Independent it
doesn't matter. He brings up issues that every thinking person will need to deal with sooner rather than later.

This is not a soap opera or a sit com. This is real and the sooner we all get used to the idea and change the way we live the
better off we will all be.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

“ditto” mr

[Mary R.]

Dear Free Markets,

I hope you like to breathe. 60% of the earth's oxygen is produced by phytoplankton in the ocean. If these tiny plants should die, that's it for all of us.

To keep this dialog going, here is a message from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and a link to another group working to avert ocean degradation.

"The California Academy of Sciences proudly supports the "Thank You Ocean" campaign, which urges California residents to learn, experience, respect, choose, and make a difference for our oceans. Visit thankyouocean.org today!"

[bd]

Perhaps all that plastic could be used for generating Electricity, It would not solve global warming, and a lot of other problems, but it might reduce the need to mine coal or oil, and reduce the plastic load from the ocean. Due to transport costs, Hawaii, particularly could be helped. I cannot be the only person to think of this.

In Orlando much of the treated sewage is used to provide water and fertilizer together, on park land and even golf courses, solving the problem of the sewage and freeing up scarce water needed elsewhere, and not increasing the nitrogen load of "brought in ' fertilizer.

These are only dings in a huge problem and perhaps that is why you had all warnings, and not much on the solution front, but solutions are desperately needed, and an action program to do something about the problem is the only solution, if there is a solution.

Otherwise I was most impressed with the first story I have seen that uses concepts tailored to the Media the presentation is in, and not recycled newspaper text or television clips, perhaps the first time NOT recycling is a good thing.

[debbi Mandel]

i grew up in colorado and visit cabo san lucas often with my family. i am shocked to see the trash that is along the beautiful beach there and always on my daily walk pick up bottles and plastic. when will we as humans realize how we are not only killing what is still alive in the sea but take a stand and say no more dumping in our waters. we need to save what little we have left........and do it now-not later. debbi

[Free Markets Work]

The free market will kick in when there is an incentive. Nature itself has no value until it has been shaped by free human enterprise. Once the supply of any valuable resource is reduced, market forces will bring about a solution in the form of an alternative or increase supply. Econ 101 it's that simple.

All this doomsday stuff is nonsense and nothing but scaremongering. I love my fish and seafood. Im sure cooked right jellytfish taste great too. Im sure humans will be enjoying the oceans harvest for many decades to come.

[S.O.S ARRECIFES (S.O.S CORAL REEFS)]

The staff of S.O.S ARRECIFES from latin america wants to thanks us for your fabulous articles and all the web. Also, we want to invite you to our web. The objetive of our web is to protect the coral reef giving info. to everybody!

One more time: thanks!

S.O.S ARRECIFES (CORAL REEFS) STAFF.

[Lucy Barnett]

Great article about sustainable fishing in Alaska. We all can make a difference by asking our local markets to carry fish caught like Taku River Reds (check out their website!). We can make a change by what we buy. Pressure on those who make a living selling us our food can be simple yet effective. Support those who are doing it right. Lucy Barnett

[JACQUELINE CORDOVA]

WE CAN'T JUST WATCH THIS AND DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. WE ARE DESTROYING OUR WORLD. LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, TELL SOMEONE, E-MAIL THE VIDEO WEBSITE TO ALL THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW. LET'S WORK TOGETHER TO SAVE THE LIVES OF MARINE ANIMALS AND OUR OWN LIVES. DON'T IGNORE THIS MESSAGE. WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR OCEANS. WE HAVE TO STOP THIS TO PRESERVE OUR OWN SPECIES.

[Grammee]

This excellent series should win a Pulitzer. How can the public nominate?...

My 9 year-old was inspired to tell all of her friends what we are doing to stop pollution & believes she can help change the world. It's all about choices and my choice has been to email this to everyone I know and bring this series up in discussion. Thanks to the authors and the L.A. Times for bringing the science and the facts of this disturbing truth to the web.

[willtaylor]

I think we need petotion the governer or a local polotician and pray that they might help