The preservation of coastal ecosystem services such as clean water, storm buffers or fisheries protection does not have to be an all-or-nothing approach, a new study indicates, and a better understanding of how ecosystems actually respond to protection efforts in a “nonlinear” fashion could help lead the way out of environmental-versus-economic gridlock.

 There may be much better ways to provide the majority of environmental protection needed while still maintaining natural resource-based jobs and sustainable communities, scientists from 13 universities and research institutes will suggest Friday in a new article in the journal Science.

 “The very concept of ecosystem-based management implies that humans are part of the equation, and their needs also have to be considered,” said Lori Cramer, an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University.

“But ecosystem concerns have too often been viewed as an all-or-none choice, and it doesn’t have to be that way,” Cramer said. “What we are learning is that sometimes a little environmental protection can go a long way, and leave room for practical compromises.”

In their analysis, a diverse group of scientists from four nations analyzed the values and uses of mangrove forests in Thailand – a hot spot of concern about coastal ecosystems being degraded and losing their traditional value of storm protection, wood production and fish habitat. These saltwater forests are frequently being replaced with commercial shrimp farms.

In the past, the scientists said, it was often assumed that the environment responded to protection efforts in a “linear” fashion – in other words, protecting twice as much of a resource generated twice the amount of protection. But the new study, and others like it, are making it more clear that ecosystems respond in a “nonlinear” fashion – protection of a small percentage of a resource might result in a large percentage of the maximum benefit that can be gained.

If the data are available to help quantify goods and services, researchers say, values can be attached to them and used to reach societal compromises. This might lead to most – but not all – of an environmental resource being protected, and some – but not all – of resources available for commercial use. The combined value of the ecosystem protection and commercial development may approach, or even exceed the value of a “hands-off” approach.

“Part of the problem now is that a lot of the data we need to make this type of assessment simply isn’t available,” said Sally Hacker, an OSU associate professor of zoology. “Biological, economic and sociological data could be enormously helpful to help us reach better management decisions, and this is something we need to improve.”

Fairly good data were available in the case of the Thailand mangrove forests, however, and researchers used it to make their case. On a given area of mangrove forest there, the assigned value of ecosystem services – storm protection, biological habitat, etc. – was determined to be about $19 million with a “hands-off” approach and no commercial use whatsoever.

But with a full range of uses, which included leaving 80 percent of the area in mangrove forests and gaining almost all of their flood protection ability, the value was found to be $17.5 million, Hacker said. And this allowed for a commercial shrimp fishery, gathering of wood products, fishing and other commercial uses.

“At some point we have to get beyond this ‘either-or’ mentality when it comes to land and ocean management,” Cramer said. “Insisting that our ecosystems be either totally protected, or totally developed, just leads to polarization, entrenched positions and a loss of communication. We can do better than that, and a good scientific approach can help show the way.”

In the final analysis, the researchers said, everything should be on the table – the value of ecosystem services, the protection of species and the environment, jobs, tourism, protection of human life, even cultural and community values.

“Shrimp farming may be a person’s livelihood, and that cannot be ignored,” Cramer said. “At the same time these mangrove forests help protect human lives and healthy ecosystems, and you can’t ignore that either. The good news is that when we understand the nonlinear nature of ecosystem response, some of these compromises become possible.”

The concepts being developed, the researchers said, are directly relevant to the current debate over marine reserves in Oregon. The challenge there will be to balance an adequate amount of biological protection, and a careful analysis of the areas to be protected, with the needs and concerns of coastal communities, they said.

In like fashion, they said, such approaches may be relevant to many other societal debates – whether it’s health care or the preservation of protective marshes around New Orleans – in which values can be assigned to various services and compromises reached. –  innovations report, Germany

NMFS against Columbia liquefied natural gas - for now

Concerns sparked by exploding numbers of salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands pollock fishery

JUNEAU – The marine conservation group Oceana today called on the National Marine Fisheries Service to count, cap and control the increasing and alarming number of salmon being caught and killed as bycatch in groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI).

 More than 130,000 Chinook (king) salmon were hauled up as bycatch during the 2007 BSAI groundfish season, which was more than double the 1997-2006 ten-year average of 49,562 fish, and 40,000 more salmon than were caught in the same fisheries in 2006. More than 90% of this bycatch was caught by pollock trawlers, and the 2008 BSAI pollock fishery opens this Sunday.

 Wild salmon are the lifeblood of Alaska’s commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries. According to the Alaska Department of Labor, salmon generate more jobs than any other fishery in Alaska and accounted for 49% of fishing employment by species in 2004. In some rural communities, particularly in Western Alaska, summer salmon harvests are often the only available source of income. In addition, salmon caught as bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands include endangered stocks from the lower 48 that are the subject of long-standing legal disputes in Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

 “We’re burning the salmon at both ends—damming spawning streams in Oregon and scooping up enormous numbers of salmon in pollock trawls in Alaska,” said Michael LeVine, Pacific Counsel and Senior Advisor for Oceana. “The National Marine Fisheries Service must take immediate and significant actions to count, cap, and control salmon bycatch. These salmon are a critically important economic, subsistence and recreational resource, and NMFS must manage them for everyone’s benefit, not just on behalf of a few industrial fishing companies.”

 Salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands has been steadily rising. In 1999 and 2000 the National Marine Fisheries Service issued an “incidental take statement” to address endangered species issues. The statement authorized a total of 55,000 Chinook to be taken as bycatch, based on assumptions of what percentage of those would come from endangered stocks. That number was surpassed in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 as the amount of bycatch steadily rose to 55,594, 63,138, 74,975, and 87,771 Chinook salmon, respectively.

 In response the permit allowance was raised to 87,500 Chinook for 2007, but the actual number of more than 130,000 salmon caught last year exceeded this new limit by more than 40,000. To put this 130,000 salmon in another perspective, the number of salmon intentionally caught in the entire commercial salmon fishery of Chinook salmon in Alaska last year was around 560,000.

 High volume groundfish fisheries like pollock are dominated by a few companies. The majority of fishermen employed by those companies are not Alaska residents: in 2002, 196 non-resident trawl fishermen landed 91% of the 2.7 billion pounds taken in the trawl fishery, earning $220 million. That same year, 4,852 Alaskan salmon fishermen shared $85.2 million.

 The same vessels catching Chinook salmon as bycatch also catch a substantial number of chum salmon each year, with chum bycatch peaking at more than 700,000 fish in 2005.

 “Salmon are Alaska’s iconic fish,” said Jon Warrenchuk, Ocean Scientist for Oceana. “We’ve invested heavily in protecting salmon habitat and sustainably managing commercial, sport, and subsistence salmon fisheries. It’s unbelievable that the pollock fishery has a no-ceiling limit on the number of salmon they can kill.”

 International Concerns

Along with concerns over the impacts to Alaskan and lower 48 communities, the bycatch of salmon in the BSAI pollock fishery means that fewer fish are entering the Yukon River to spawn.

 The Yukon River is a major Chinook salmon spawning river, and Yukon River Chinook undergo one of the longest salmon migrations in the world, with some traveling over 1,800 miles into the interior of the Yukon and Northern British Columbia. These salmon are vitally important to the long-term health, viability, and biodiversity of our oceans, estuaries, rivers, and watersheds. Salmon affect the ecology of a large and diverse group of species across a wide range of ecosystems because they transport energy and nutrients between the ocean, estuary, and freshwater environments.

 Yukon River salmon also support significant subsistence and commercial fisheries both in Canada and the United States. Yukon River Chinook salmon are so important to those two countries that they have entered into the Pacific Salmon Treaty and the Yukon River Salmon Agreement, which are designed specifically to protect the salmon and maintain the fisheries.

 The Pacific Salmon Treaty governs the conservation and management of Pacific salmon stocks that move between Canada and the United States. The main principles of the treaty require the United States to prevent overfishing of salmon stocks and provide equity in fishing between the two countries.

 Due in part to salmon bycatch in the BSAI fishery, however, only an estimated 24,585 Chinook made it to the Canadian border in 2007. This is far below the border passage escapement goals of the Pacific Salmon Treaty and resulted in no commercial fishery, no sport fishery, and limited subsistence harvest from the Canadian side of the Yukon River. Oceana also sent a letter to the U.S. State Department expressing concerns over potential violation of this treaty.

 Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans. Our teams of marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates win specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life. Global in scope and dedicated to conservation, Oceana has campaigners based in North America (Washington, DC; Juneau, AK; Anchorage, AK; Portland, OR; Monterey, CA), Europe (Madrid, Spain; Brussels, Belgium) and South America (Santiago, Chile). More than 300,000 members and e-activists in over 150 countries have already joined Oceana.