Janis Searles Jones. Originally published in the HIR Spring 2018 Issue.

Janis Searles Jones is CEO of Ocean Conservancy, the U.S.’s most-established conservation organization focused solely on solutions to tackle the most pressing ocean issues of our time. Jones is a renowned marine conservation and policy expert, with deep expertise in Alaska and the Arctic. She holds a JD and a certificate in environmental and natural resources law from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, where she is also a Distinguished Environmental Law Graduate and an adjunct faculty member. She is a 2017 Pew Marine Fellow. Prior to joining Ocean Conservancy, Jones was senior regional counsel and policy advisor for Oceana and a staff attorney for the Alaska office of Earthjustice. She is based in Ocean Conservancy’s Portland, Oregon office. Originally published in Spring 2018.

Thirty feet below the surface of Raja Ampat in Indonesia, a ten-foot-wide mounding coral shimmers in the clear water. Comprised of thousands of individual animal polyps, corals like these exist because they have a close relationship with symbiotic algae known as zoothanthellae. Without each other, neither could thrive in the band of warm ocean water that defines the tropics. While humans live above water, we, too, are deeply dependent on the ocean and all that it provides. Our future and the ocean’s future are inextricably linked, and humans and the ocean will flourish or fail together.

I am consistently surprised by, and in awe of, the ocean. The ocean’s remarkable creatures, from pencil fish to right whales, elusive ghost sharks to charismatic sea otters, are reminders of the beauty, mystery, and multiplicity of life. The global functions of the ocean are equally inspiring; as a driver of many of the basic physical processes making our earth habitable, the ocean also reliably provides us with oxygen, water, and food. Unfortunately, my sense of awe has been joined by a growing unease, as a result of human-caused threats facing the ocean, and, by extension, our planet. I am especially troubled by the changing climate and the fundamental alterations it is causing in oceanic and coastal habitats, as well as in the human communities that rely on them.

As the new leader of the oldest US nonprofit organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation, as a lawyer who is cognizant of the role and limits of the rule of law, and as a parent of a young child, I am convinced that a focused effort, in pursuit of effective solutions that engage all of us, is necessary to keep the ocean productive, protective, nurturing, and healthy. We can best start this global change, focused on ocean health, by a commitment to address the changing climate. There is broad agreement that we need to keep the earth from warming significantly to maintain our current way of life on earth. The original goal set by countries to keep warming below two degrees Celsius largely failed to take into account the warming limit that the ocean could sustain. The recent Paris Agreement’s target of keeping the earth’s warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius or below has been met with optimism, recognizing that the new target is more in line with what the ocean can sustain. We must also take concurrent action to recognize the global nature of our ocean resources and commit to comprehensive management. Both approaches—tackling climate change, and moving toward a global management structure for industrial and other threats to the ocean—are necessary.

Implementing these solutions will not be easy and time is running out. But the ocean’s future, and our own future, depends on their success.

The Ocean is Vital  and Changing at an Unprecedented Scale

The ocean is the critical life support system for the globe. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton—microscopic marine plants—provide more than half of the oxygen we breathe. The ocean produces nearly 150 million metric tons of seafood annually, providing the primary source of protein for almost 3 billion people. The ocean provides 90 percent of the world’s habitats and hosts staggering biodiversity; 30 percent of the world’s phyla are exclusively marine, while only 10 percent are exclusively terrestrial. The ocean is home to species ranging from the largest animal to ever grace the planet, the blue whale, to microscopic plants, animals, and bacteria.

The ocean has a special allure, and we rely on it for our cultural, psychological, economic, and social well-being. Nearly half of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coast, and around the world 1.9 billion people inhabit coastal areas. More than 90 percent of the world’s trade is carried by ocean-based transportation, and the ocean is a vital component of the global economy. Fishing alone provides a livelihood for nearly one out of ten people.

The ocean is integral to the basic functioning of our planet. Spanning more than 360 million square miles and comprising over 350 quintillion gallons of water, the ocean moderates the world’s weather and drives precipitation patterns around the globe. The ocean also stores the vast majority of the world’s carbon, in organic form, in the deep sea.

Because it is critical to the functioning of our climate system, the ocean is a vital component of our ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The ocean has already absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat caused by human burning of fossil fuels. Without this service, the Earth would long ago have become uninhabitable, reaching an average temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, the ocean has absorbed 25 percent of the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) humans have released to the atmosphere.

The processes of absorbing heat and CO2 have had significant detrimental effects on the ocean. Excess heat has decreased oxygen levels in the ocean, which in turn has radically disrupted food webs as animals flee waters in which they would otherwise suffocate. When CO2 dissolves in the liquid ocean, carbonic acid is formed, and, slowly but inexorably, acidity levels increase. On average, the ocean is now 30 percent more acidic than it was before the Industrial Revolution. In fact, the ocean has not been this acidic in the last 800,000 years. Ocean acidification is, quite literally, dissolving the foundation of marine food webs around the world. Shelled species like mussels, clams, oysters, corals, and a host of others are struggling to survive, threatening grave implications for food security and coastal livelihoods.

More troubling still, these effects can combine to amplify one another and lead to radical changes in ocean ecosystems. The triple threat of increased ocean temperatures, increased acidification, and decreased oxygenation comprise the three key drivers of ocean change. Their interaction may lead to a chain of impacts ranging from dead zones, sea level rise, and fishery collapse, to food insecurity, human migration, and social disruption.

The Ocean is Finite

For much of human history, the ocean has been taken for granted. Even before Hugo Grotius formalized the idea of “freedom of the seas” in 1604, people treated the ocean as an endless expanse filled with inexhaustible resources. On the shore, political boundaries were established and wars were fought over tiny swaths of land. In the ocean, however, even after the concept of seaward boundaries—defined as the distance a cannonball could fly, or about three miles—was established, the idea of free navigation and the freedom to exploit the seas continued. It was not until the 1970s that the exclusive economic zone, a 200-mile boundary from the coastline in which the coastal state has jurisdiction, came into being.

Even as efforts toward regulation have increased, we have generally continued to treat huge expanses of the ocean as limitless, inexhaustible, and ungoverned spaces. All too often, what we take out of the ocean is finite in supply, and that which we deposit into the ocean does not simply disappear. We are doing too much of both. We exploit the ocean’s resources by fishing unsustainably, extracting oil and gas, and mining. If pursued recklessly, these activities can disturb and even fundamentally destroy critical ocean habitats and living resources. On the other hand, much of what we add to the ocean stays there, including plastics, excess nutrients, petrochemicals, and other pollutants. Only now are we realizing the true impact of these human activities on the world’s oceans. For example, plastic pollution is filling both the ocean and the gullets, bellies, and beaks of marine creatures. Animals across ocean ecosystems, including 100 percent of the sea turtle species and more than 25 percent of the fish sampled from seafood markets around the world, have been contaminated by plastic.

These human stressors can contribute to and multiply the existential risks caused by changing climate and ocean acidification. Overfishing combined with temperature-induced stress can cause fish stocks to collapse, contributing to food insecurity. Nutrient runoff from industrial agriculture can exacerbate hypoxia and ocean acidification. Rising sea levels combined with coastal development can disturb natural habitats, change hydrology, and increase pollution. Shipping combined with oil exploration can create an undersea cacophony that disrupts whale and fish behavior.

Solutions for a Changing Ocean

The list of threats to our ocean is daunting, and time is running short. For humans and the ocean to survive and prosper, we must tackle these problems with resolve and ingenuity. The good news is that the ocean is inherently resilient, and it can recover if protected and governed effectively. It is not too late to act. If we stop treating the ocean as infinite and inexhaustible and change our approach to governing these great commons, we can ensure a future for this life support system that sustains us all. Through actions in different arenas, at different scales, and with a diversity of partners, we can establish governance systems that reshape our view of the ocean and keep this finite resource healthy.

Without question, the single most important need for global ocean health is continued international action to address climate change. The Paris Agreement is a critical and important first step, and one upon which we must build. The Paris Agreement is a compact that relies on voluntary compliance and provides a reliable platform for tracking, reporting,alliance-building, knowledge creation, and sharing of best practices. This voluntary, “bottom-up” approach likely allowed for greater ambition among the parties than would have been possible in a binding agreement, as state reluctance to be held accountable in a binding agreement may have led to less ambitious commitments.

The Paris Agreement also marks the first time the ocean was recognized in a climate instrument; this is an encouraging sign because the ocean has an important role to play in future negotiations about climate change. A large, vocal, and influential coalition of ocean nation-states and other actors can insist that emissions targets are defined to ensure the continued viability of ocean ecosystems. It may very well be that, if maintaining ocean ecosystems becomes a goal of climate change discussions, the aspirational goal to keep the earth’s warming under 1.5 degrees Celcius emanating from the 2016 Paris meetings will become the agreed upon goal.

Regardless of the steps taken to reduce emissions, the ocean will continue to change for decades. In addition to action to address climate change, therefore, we also need to take steps to improve management of human impacts on the ocean. The steps we take today to better manage fisheries, reduce impacts from vessel traffic, and prevent pollution can play important roles in ensuring that ocean ecosystems and services are maintained in the future. To tackle the full scale and complexity of these issues, we need creativity, multi-scalar and multi-sectoral action, precautionary management, and widespread commitment. There is no single “silver bullet” that will address all the ocean’s ills, but we can build upon some successes, learn from effective governance models, and use new knowledge, new thinking, and new leaders to point us to new solutions.

There are opportunities and necessities for partnerships and collaboration at multiple scales. Here we highlight two models of international agreement, one binding and one voluntary, that demonstrate our ability to creatively address global ocean issues.

The Central Arctic Ocean and a Binding Multilateral Agreement

In a time of geopolitical posturing and global crises, the Central Arctic Ocean is a bright spot, illustrating that seeming political rivals can come together to protect communal resources and to manage the ocean in a sensible way. In December 2017, negotiators from nine countries—the United States, Canada, Norway, Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, and China—and the European Union reached an agreement to protect 1.1 million square miles of international waters surrounding the North Pole. Once signed, this legally binding agreement will prevent the initiation of commercial fishing operations in the Central Arctic Ocean, while scientific research is conducted to learn more about its marine life and the changes resulting from climate-driven sea ice melt. This innovative application of the precautionary principle is an important step in the evolution of international

fishery manage-

ment; for the first time, nations are committing to scientific research in the high seas before commercial fishing begins.

The countries involved, many of which rarely see eye-to-eye, recognized the importance of protecting iconic habitats and important species in a time and place of rapid change. By starting from the assumptions that ocean resources are limited and that humans are fundamentally changing ocean systems, these ten entities came to an agreement that reduces pressures on the Arctic and that will protect it for years to come. New negotiations starting this year that aim for a novel international treaty to protect the biodiversity of the “high seas,” formally known as “areas beyond national jurisdiction,” are another critical step toward recognizing the importance and finite nature of their resources. These types of binding, precautionary approaches are models to which other agreements can aspire.

Voluntary Partnerships: The International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification

In addition to binding agreements, countries are exploring other avenues for action. Where formal, intergovernmental agreements are not possible, at least in the short term, cross-sectoral partnerships that bring all stakeholders to the table to solve key issues are meaningful first steps. For example, in 2012 the oyster industry in the US state of Washington nearly declared bankruptcy as a result of increasingly acidic water—a consequence of increased CO2—dissolving the shells of oyster larvae.  Private sector interests brought this to the attention of state officials, and important state actors came together to address the problems through coordinated action, thus making Washington the first state to protect its coasts and businesses from ocean acidification. This approach paved the way for an innovative partnership among the government, the private sector, and civil society as a whole.

Washington’s roadmap for action was soon emulated in Maine, Oregon, Maryland, and California—other US states whose shellfish industries and fisheries are also at risk from acidification. Key interests were brought together and action was taken at a local level, not only protecting vulnerable businesses in the short term, but also serving as a model for others, encouraging scientific knowledge sharing, and helping to drive high-level interest and attention to climate-related ocean issues.

This model was expanded into the International Alliance to Combat Ocean

Acidification. The Alliance brings together governments across the globe with private sector, academic, and NGO partners to combat ocean acidification and changing ocean conditions. The alliance accomplishes these goals by advancing scientific understanding, taking action to reduce the causes of ocean acidification and other stresses on the ocean that exacerbate its effects, expanding public awareness and understanding of acidification, and building sustained support for addressing this global problem. Currently the alliance has over 50 members, including national governments like Chile, France, Iceland, Fiji, New Zealand, and Tuvalu as well as states, tribal nations, cities, researchers, and NGOs.

Individual Action: International Coastal Cleanup

Finally, as global citizens, it is incumbent on all of us to take individual action as well. We all have a role to play in protecting the ocean. Beyond choices we make as consumers, such as asking for drinks without straws, carrying reusable water bottles and shopping bags, and buying ocean-friendly products, there are definitive steps we can take as citizens. We can volunteer for events like Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest single-day volunteer event dedicated to the ocean.  Through our experience with over 12 million volunteers and more than 228 million pounds of trash picked up from coastlines around the world, we know that removing trash from our ocean is one of the best ways to directly engage people. Every single piece of trash collected makes a difference, from the individual and collective action that directly benefits and builds our communities to the opportunity to learn about, care about, and engage with ocean issues.

In addition to cleanups, we can also support public transportation, advocate for equitable policies and resource management solutions that protect underserved communities, vote for ocean and climate-friendly politicians, run for office ourselves, and support organizations that stand for ocean values. All of these actions make a difference, and build for a better future for our global ocean.

Conclusion

The mix of innovation, practical governance examples, and practices I have described above give me hope that we can address our daunting problems, beginning with climate change. We will need more solutions and outside-of-the-box thinking, particularly on policies relating to the high seas, where no single country has jurisdiction, and on difficult issues such as marine pollution with plastics and illegal fishing. Perhaps innovative nations will explore a “Paris Agreement for the Ocean,” linking voluntary agreements that could target overall limits on nutrients or plastics flowing into the ocean, or on the handling of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fish shipments that come to port. Regardless of the scale or form—whether conventional or innovative, multilateral or regional, local or individual—we must pursue actions, agreements, and solutions that no longer treat the ocean as endless and open, but instead recognize the worth of the ocean for all of us.