by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2015 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved
After “Bigger than T.
rex” PBS showed another
program that was considerably less interesting, an episode of the series Earth:
The New Wild called “Oceans” which had
a compelling premise — about the work of various scientists who are trying to
figure out ways to counteract the awful impact humans have had on the oceans
through overfishing, coastal development, global warming (the use of those two
words indicated that David H. Koch had had nothing to do with sponsoring this program! Phrases like “global warming” and
“climate change,” especially preceded by the words “human-caused,” are strictly
verboten from any politicians,
professors or programs the Koch brothers sponsor) and the increasing pollution
of the seas, all of which are creating what the program’s most compelling
participant, oceanographer Dr. Jeremy Jackson, calls a “rise of slime.” Dr.
Jackson is first seen from the back, showing off a head of very long, naturally curly red hair that hangs down
past his shoulders. When he turns around and we see his face, we find him
pretty venerable and rather homely, but he’s still a fascinating character as
he marshals various bits of evidence — including photos of sport fishermen from
his native Florida posing with their catches, which from 1910 through to the
present become progressively less numerous and also smaller. The conclusion is
that humans are catching so many fish that many species have been unable to
sustain themselves and are either dying off or their populations are so reduced
that they aren’t able to perform their usual function of “filtering” the water
to get rid of the bacteria that are now growing uncontrollably in the deep and
largely creating that “rise of slime.” The show goes into various attempts of
other people to counteract these trends, ranging from putting electronic tags
on tuna and other overfished predator species to find out where they mate (the
idea, obviously, is if they can chart the places fish go to reproduce and keep
fishermen and fishing boats out of those areas, the fish populations will
recover and the fishing industry will benefit in the long run) to creating an
artificial coral reef (including protecting the fish who crap on the reefs,
thereby providing an important source of fertilizer for the coral), midwiving
lemon sharks (we get several quite explicit shots of female sharks giving
birth) so the sharks that inhabit the Florida swamps can be steered into the
proper places for them to grow up unmolested by other predators), creating fish
hatcheries in mid-ocean (they look like giant geodesic domes) so fish
populations can be sustained, and even restoring a part of highly developed
coastline off New York City to bring back its natural population of oysters, who
filter out a lot of undersea bacteria. Dr. Jackson sadly concludes towards the
end that we’ll never be able to restore the ocean to what it was, but all the
measures described in the rest of the program will at least be steps in the
right direction