WhackyNation

If my wonderful old friend, Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, were alive today, she would be shrugging off the many reports and articles insisting that our oceans cannot survive the onslaught of wastes and pollutants being dumped into them. In fact, I remember her saying “Poppycock” upon reading such a report in the local newspaper.

Dr. Ray was recognized as one of the world’s leading oceanographers, and she was much in demand by many countries seeking protection of their vast ocean coast lines. She led many scientific research projects, particularly in the Pacific Ocean, and she was an authority on deep-sea life, ocean currents, and the importance of the oceans in weather conditions.

At the time she exclaimed “Poppycock” in response to a newspaper report that oceans were dying, I was with her and asked why she had pooh-poohed the report. I remember her response because she said it so dramatically. Here’s what she said in response to my inquiry:

“The oceans represent the most powerful force on the planet, and they certainly don’t need the coddling the pessimists wish to apply to them. Every one of the world’s oceans can take care of its own clean-up if the human race will just get out of the way and quit putting elements in their paths.

“For instance, we should quit building under-water fortresses on our shore lines for the accommodation of oceangoing vessels. Leave the ocean waves alone to their own needs. Nature will do the rest. Each of the oceans will clean themselves and protect the sea life within their waters.

“Instead of inventing needless systems to keep the oceans clean, we should be doing other things to protect them. For example, I have tried all my life as an oceanographer to limit fishing expeditions from decimating the whale population on one hand and other specimens on the other hand.”

Dixy complained bitterly many times over the actions of the fishing fleets from Japan and Russia — fleets that utilized vast nets to collect varieties of fish in numbers they didn’t need. Then they would salvage some and toss the dead remainder overboard to be consumed by sharks, whales, and other large sea creatures.

She was one of the maritime experts who prevailed upon the U.S. government to enact the 200-mile barrier that was designed to keep foreign fishing vessels out of the ocean waters along the Pacific Coast shoreline. The barrier helped somewhat, but Russian and Japanese vessels continued to use their nets for overfishing efforts.

Throughout most of her later years, Dixy was a prominent member of the international Law of the Seas group that sought to require all seagoing nations to limit their catches and to protect sea life generally from pollutants of all kinds that have been dumped into ocean waters.

Most importantly, as I said, Dixy would be laughing off all the reports by the do-gooders to “save the oceans,” a needless effort because the oceans will clean themselves if we will just “let them do what comes naturally.”

Year after year, without fail, American fishermen and the U.S. Coast Guard keep reporting that foreign fleets, most of them from Asian nations or Russia, are taking fish illegally in our waters off the Pacific Coast. And for years our federal government has looked the other way or said it could find no violations.

In fact, the U.S. has not only ignored the complaints, but in many instances defended the fishing tactics of Japan, Korea, Russia, and other violators. I think that, at times, our State Department is the best foreign ministry other nations have, and that feeling persists each year.

It is not unusual, for example, for foreign ships to cross into our North Pacific waters under cover of darkness or low clouds and illegally catch an estimated 10 billion pounds of fish. And all this happens despite the fact that Congress declared several years ago that no ships could come within 200 miles of our Northwest and Western shorelines without our permission.

Ten billion pounds of fish is nearly three times more than scientists say should be caught without endangering the ocean’s fish supply. We seem to be the only fishing nation that does nothing about international poachers, but we restrict our fishermen severely.

However, Japan, Korea, Russia, and other nations do nothing about restricting their fishermen in their own waters. For example, you don’t see Japanese or Korean fishermen taking fish in Russian waters, nor do you see the Russians fishing in Japanese and Korean waters — and for good reason.

Our do-nothing federal government should take a tip from the Russians, for instance, and remove the wraps from the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Air Force and give them full authority to patrol our waters, taking the strongest action necessary to chase poachers out of our waters.

To do it, we will have to give the State Department a shot of starch in the back and a swift kick a little farther down to force it to take action against any fishing vessel or fleet that dares cross into the 200-mile zone without first getting permission from the Coast Guard or the Navy.

Something must be done to stop the illegal poaching and, also, to cut back on the fishing fleets that drag the ocean with expansive nets to take millions of fish in one operation. I wish the federal government had listened to my old friend, Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, before she died in 1994.

Known internationally as a highly experienced marine scientist and oceanographer, Dr. Ray tried often to warn government and everyone concerned that, as she put it, “The fish population in all the earth’s oceans and other waters is not unlimited. If we keep up the constant scooping up of sea life in those horrendous nets, we will one day discover that most species of fish are gone forever.”

Unfortunately, Dr. Ray’s warnings were not heeded by the federal government, nor by commercial and sports fishermen. And, worse yet, her warnings have had no effect on the ears of officials and the fishing industries of other nations around the world.