Save The Oceans

In 2009, Sylvia Earle gave a presentation in a TED conference on a rising problem that the world faces: the ecologic depletion of the world’s oceans. The ocean accounts for a massive portion of the recycled carbon dioxide back into oxygen, and provides food for huge parts of humanity and for huge numbers of animals. I agree with her conclusions that the oceans are being depleted and this can only mean bad things for humanity, but I disagree with her solution. To solve the problem, Mrs. Earle claims that the United States and other countries should expand their protected zones of the ocean. However, an ocean is not like a land environment, where you can section off parts of America to save isolated habitats. Fish travel often travel and migrate hundreds of miles to find food and suitable mates, this is especially true the larger the fish is. Sectioning off parts of the ocean only solves part of the problem, because the fish in that area will simply swim out of the area and then be caught by fisherman. The only way to incorporate government protection into the oceans, is for the government to effectively own the oceans within its borders and then lease the rights to fish or put quotas on the number of fish that each fisherman can take out.

I find this solution of government protection rarely leads to the desired outcomes. In the American west and in large parts of Canada, forests are protected in much the same way as described above. Loggers are given leases that give the rights to cut trees in a given area. However, this leads to one of the most well known and discussed economic problems when property ownership is taken out of the equation: the tragedy of the commons. The tragedy of the commons is a problem where numerous actors ...

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...r example, no sane property owner would allow a trash company to dump their trash on the property where he owns his house. This disincentive will keep profit seekers from harming others property because court proceedings are long and costly. Coral reefs will become popular tourist destinations, for their variety of life and their impressive size. For the same reason that Disney Land is not littered with trash, the owners will seek to protect the reefs in order to keep tourism up. There is also the almost unknown practice of creating artificial coral reefs with sunken ships or other large structures. With this practice and a profit incentive, reef owners could even expand the reef, thus increasing the number of people who can view it at one time. In short, the privatization of the worlds oceans will lead to increased numbers of fish, larger reefs, and a cleaner ocean.