Stocks of Alaska pollock have shrunk 50% from last year to record low levels and put the world’s largest food fishery on the brink of collapse. Pollock stocks have been unable to reproduce quickly enough to recover from yearly catch of 1 million tons. Pollock biomass in U.S. waters is now down to 940,000 tons from 1.8 million tons the previous year.

Pollock is a staple of fur seals, whales and the endangered Steller sea lions – and the U.S. fast food industry. It is used in McDonald’s fish sandwiches, frozen fish sticks, fish and chips and imitation crabmeat.

The 2008 catch limit was set at 1 million tons last December, a 28% cut from the 2007 limit.

Greenpeace warns we are on the cusp of one of the largest fishery collapses in history and advises that the catch limit be halved, that fishing on spawning populations be suspended, and that marine reserves be created to protect pollock habitats.

A study released today by marine biologists Robert Diaz and Rutger Rosenberg finds that ocean “dead zones” are increasing exponentially:

“Dead zones in the coastal oceans have spread exponentially since the 1960s and have serious consequences for ecosystem functioning. The formation of dead zones has been exacerbated by the increase in primary production and consequent worldwide coastal eutrophication fueled by riverine runoff of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels. Enhanced primary production results in an accumulation of particulate organic matter, which encourages microbial activity and the consumption of dissolved oxygen in bottom waters. Dead zones have now been reported from more than 400 systems, affecting a total area of more than 245,000 square kilometers, and are probably a key stressor on marine ecosystems.”

The study was published online by the journal Science (subs. recq’d.).

Kevin Drum has posted this graph at The Washington Monthly:

click to view graph

An article about the study in the Washington Post quotes Douglas N. Rader, chief ocean scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund:

“The next big challenge, after global warming, is going to be addressing the massive upset of the world’s nitrogen cycle.”

The chaos in the planet’s nitrogen cycle is not only creating dead zones but also inciting the spread of toxic algae, such as the pfiesteria that has appeared in recent years in the Chesapeake.

A new United Nations Environmental Programme report titled In Dead Water finds that marine ecosystems are under great stress – and that stress is increasing because of climate change caused by global warming.

The report finds growing and abundant evidence that the rate of environmental degradation in the oceans may have progressed further than anything yet seen on land.

Fishing grounds are increasingly damaged by over-harvesting, unsustainable bottom trawling and other fishing practices, pollution and dead zones, and a striking pattern of invasive species infestations in the same areas. These same areas may lose more than 80% of their tropical and cold water coral reefs due to rising sea temperatures and increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) leading to a decrease in seawater pH (acidification). Finally, these same areas are also facing rapidly growing pollution from coastal development, potential consequences of climate change such as possible slowing of ‘flushing’ mechanisms and increasing infestations of invasive species.

We are now observing what may become, in the absence of policy changes, a collapsing ecosystem with climate the final coup d’grace.

An article by Andy Revkin in Sunday’s New York Times notes that recent data show “an unexpected rise in global emissions and a decline in energy efficiency.” Revkin adds that “a growing chorus of economists, scientists and students of energy policy are saying that whatever benefits the cap approach yields, it will be too little and come too late.”

He quotes economist Jeffrey Sachs:

“Even with a cutback in wasteful energy spending, our current technologies cannot support both a decline in carbon dioxide emissions and an expanding global economy. If we try to restrain emissions without a fundamentally new set of technologies, we will end up stifling economic growth, including the development prospects for billions of people.”

In sum, cap-and trade hasn’t worked, as we pointed out in this blog posting. But god forbid we should question our addiction to “growth.” In fact growth is our god, and economists the priesthood.

So what is Revkin – or as he carefully puts it in his article, what do “others” – suggest? A Manhatten Project-like commitment to and investment in “new technologies.”

Joseph Romm says that we don’t have time to wait for some unknown techno-fix and disagrees that we can’t stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at acceptable levels (below 450 ppm) using existing technologies.

Existing technologies – including, for example, solar thermal can provide sufficient energy to support people around the globe at decent and equitable levels of existence. We know from long historical practice – before the auto age – how to construct aesthetically pleasing and equitable communities that don’t rely on ravaging the Earth and poisoning the atmosphere. And we can probably avert catastrophic climate change if we just stop burning coal.

Global warming is a symptom of a too-large ecological footprint.  But it’s not the only symptom. Peak oil, to be followed by peak natural gas and peak coal, are other symptoms. Other resources – soil, water, rare earth metals, forests, fisheries – are reeling from the relentless assault of “growth” as well.

Global warming and other consequences of stress on Earth’s sources and sinks require much more than a technological fix.  They require that we topple the false idol of growth, along with its priesthood.

The solution to global warming isn’t technical – it’s spiritual.

A new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) entitled “In Dead Water” says that climate change is emerging as the latest threat to the world’s dwindling fish stocks.

A slowing of ocean currents as a result of climate change may years interrupt the transport of nutrients to the most valuable coastal fishing zones. Also, higher sea surface temperatures over the coming decades threaten to bleach and kill up to 80 per cent of the globe’s coral reefs, which act as natural sea defenses and as nurseries for fish.  And carbon dioxide emissions are increasing the acidity of seas and oceans,  impacting calcium and shell-forming marine life including corals and the tiny planktonic organisms at the base of the food chain.

The worst concentration of cumulative impacts of climate change with existing pressures of over-harvesting, bottom trawling, invasive species infestations, coastal development and pollution appear to be concentrated in 10-15% of the oceans, far higher than had previously been supposed.  The most heavily impacted areas are concurrent with today’s most important fishing grounds, including the estimated 7.5% deemed to be the most economically valuable fishing areas of the world.

The executive summary of the report is available here.