FALL 2019
Naturalist’s Spotlight on Sustainability
tidelines
Photo Credit: FriendsofLaJollaShores.com
Volume XXXIX Issue 3
A Publication for Friends of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
e What’s Insid
....... 3 Creature Feature White Seabass old .... 4 Science Centerf by Irene Kurata, Cabrillo Whalewatch and University of California Naturalist re Discovery Lectu ...... 5 It’s Fall again and what would Cabrillo the Humpbacks that migrate to Hawaii Series............... Marine Aquarium be in the Fall without were taken off the Endangered Species ....... 8 Save the Date! ... our Sea Fair (with its Sustainability List in 2016. A cause for celebration
message) and the start of the Cabrillo Whalewatch program? We have many other excellent programs at CMA, but these two events are worth highlighting in this issue of Tidelines. As pointed out in the excellent book (which we have available in our Library), Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know, the whaling industry provides a cautionary tale for our oceans and fish population. • Humans need food. • The ocean seems to provide endlessly. • Humans innovate and technology “advances.” • Animal populations fall precipitously. • If and when humans intervene properly and in time, animal populations recover.
A facility of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation & Parks with support from Friends of CMA
given the near extinction of these magnificent animals. The hopeful signs of the White Shark recovery is another good example of several human-based factors coming together that allowed nature to regain some balance. The gill net was banned in California state waters since the 1990s and California continued to pass legislation further encouraging commercial fisheries to use other equipment. This was important because sharks are frequently bycatch in gill nets. Other federal protections such as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Clean Water Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act helped restore conditions such that a more robust food web could exist. In other words, more food for sharks (such as sea lions) means we have more sharks. And, none of this (continued on page 2) would have been possible without concerned people raising their voices, We’ve seen the recovery sequence occur scientists providing the science and data with the Pacific Gray Whale and certain and government implementing new populations of the Humpback Whale. legislation and providing an enforcement The Humpback Whales we see off our mechanism. coast are “Threatened” and protected Through a multi-pronged management under the Endangered Species Act, but