West Coast Publishing Ocean 2014 affirmative page

Biodiversity Advantage

Biodiversity Advantage

A. MHK technologies protect ocean wildlife in multiple ways

Peter J. Schaumberg, counsel and Ami M. Grace-Tardy, associate, both with Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., Winter 2010, “The Dawn of Federal Marine Renewable Energy Development,” Natural Resources & Environment, Vol. 24, No. 3, Accessed 4/28/2014, http://www.bdlaw.com/assets/htmldocuments/2010%20The%20Dawn%20of%20Federal%20Marine%20Renewable%20Energy%20Development%20NRE%20P%20Schaumberg%20and%20A.%20Grace-Tardy.pdf

Not all potential impacts from marine renewable energy development are necessarily problematic. Some devices may actually have a positive impact on the marine environment by supporting new marine habitats. For example, floating wave energy devices could shelter fish and sea birds in areas that are off-limits to fishing due to the marine energy device. Likewise, new microecosystems for crustaceans and aquatic plants could flourish on seabed moorings connected to marine devices.

B. Marine renewables act as fish aggregating devices (FAD) creating artificial reefs that quickly boosts ocean biodiversity and productivity

Manuela Truebano, Ph.D., Lecturer in Marine Biology at the Plymouth Marine Institute, Plymouth University, Et al., June 19, 2013, “Marine Renewables, Biodiversity and Fisheries,” Plymouth Marine Institute at Plymouth University, http://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/ downloads/marine_ renewables_biodiver.pdf, Accessed 4/28/2014

Floating devices have the capacity to act as FADs. The phenomenon of fish aggregating around floating objects has been exploited by fishermen for centuries. For recently deployed MRE devices, aggregation can occur over a short period of time, likely as a result of the benefits associated directly with the devices including food availability, shelter or the presence of a suitable spawning area; and indirectly such as the presence of mates. Given such rapid aggregation, devices could be concentrating fish from the vicinity, rather than increasing recruitment. While this is possible, there is a clear benefit in aggregating fish stocks if the area provides protection and food, and is free from fisheries pressure, as envisaged in the case of floating devices associated with or forming part of MRE developments. Species richness and assemblage size are known to correlate with the size of the FAD and thus larger installations, such as wave energy devices, have the potential to attract more species. In addition to floating devices, the deployment of different materials, whether especially designed concrete or steel units, or scrap materials such as car tires and shipwrecks, has been extensively used to enhance fisheries, protect or rehabilitate certain habitats, or to increase the recreational value of an area. Likewise, the monopiles and associated hard structures, used for support and scour protection, increase the amount of artificial hard substrate, thus increasing the area available for organisms to colonize. As in the case of FADs, there is some concern that MRE devices may be merely attracting organisms from the vicinity. However, there is evidence to suggest that such hard structures act as artificial reefs, providing a combination of refuge and food availability, and enhancing recruitment thus increasing productivity.

C. Human survival depends on strong ocean health

Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D. in Marine Biology and National Geographic explorer-in-residence, November 1, 2013,”Indispensable Ocean: Aligning Ocean Health and Human Well-Being,” National Geographic News, http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/01/indispensable-ocean-aligning-ocean-health-and-human-well-being/, Accessed 5/1/2014

In a presentation at the World Bank headquarters in 2009, I began by showing the classic image of Earth from space and commented: “There it is—The World Bank. Throughout the history of humankind, we have been drawing down the assets, living on the capital without accounting properly for the losses.” This is especially true of the ocean, where impacts are less obvious than for terrestrial systems. Current policies and mind-sets globally were formed decades ago when it seemed the ocean was “too big to fail.” But failing it is, with about half the coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves, sea grass meadows and coastal marshes globally gone or in serious decline, hundreds of coastal dead zones, steep reduction in numerous commercially exploited species of sharks, swordfish, tunas, cod, salmon and many others.  At the same time, the role of the ocean in governing climate, weather, production of oxygen, the carbon cycle, water cycle and overall planetary chemistry has come into clear focus.  Now we know:  If the ocean is in trouble, so are we.  It is time to take care of the ocean as if our lives depend on it —because they do.

MHK technologies cause an “artificial reef” effect

Ocean renewable energy development creates a cascading “reef effect” that revitalizes biodiversity

Emily J. Shumchenia, Ph.D., Post-doctoral fellow, University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, 2014, “Environmental effects of ocean renewable energy,” http://www.eshumchenia.com/environmental-effects-of-ocean-renewable-energy.html, Accessed 4/11/2014

Ocean renewable energy devices represent a net addition of hard bottom habitat to the marine environment, often in places where centuries of fishing have scoured or destroyed natural hard substrates. Newly available habitat will quickly be colonized by biofouling organisms, which could in turn cause fish, birds and whales to aggregate as they have on/near offshore oil and gas platforms. These “reef effects” will likely have cascading impacts that affect habitat complexity, biodiversity, human behavior, and the integrity and functioning of the devices. If fishing activities were excluded from large renewable energy arrays (as in the UK), they would represent de facto marine reserves. The figure above provides a conceptual diagram of the multiple feedbacks related to this topic. Some of the more complex research questions that could not be captured by a simple diagram include “How does fishing activity proximal to renewable energy devices affect the biofouling communities and surrounding benthic communities?” and “Do changes in seafloor geomorphology surrounding devices affect near-field hydrodynamics and drag on structures?” I have proposed this integrated work as a member of the URI team to the BOEM Environmental Studies Program for FY 2014-2016.

Adding renewable structures creates an artificial reef effect

Martin Attrill, Professor and Director of Plymouth Marine Institute, Plymouth University Et al., June 19, 2013, “Marine Renewables,

Biodiversity and Fisheries,” Plymouth Marine Institute at Plymouth University, http://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/marine_ renewables_biodiver.pdf, Accessed 4/28/2014

Also it has to be recognised that benefits may accrue from adding physical structure to the environment in some locations, as it provides a new, albeit artificial, reef habitat for organisms to settle on (such as filter feeders). Such structure tends to attract and concentrate fish. Provision of physical structure results in increased benthic and fish biomass, though whether this is a concentration effect of fish or is a true boost to local populations is as yet unsure, in parallel with other artificial reef structures.

Biodiversity Impacts - Oceans

The diverse role of oceans make them crucial to human survival

Chris Gibson, Director of the UOW Global Challenges Program, Et al, March 10, 2014, “Why our precious oceans are under threat,” Global Challenges, http://uowblogs.com/globalchallenges/2014/03/10/the-threats-facing-our-precious-oceans/, Accessed 5/1/2014

The oceans are critical to the global environment and human survival in numerous ways – they are vital to the global nutrient cycling, represent a key repository and supporter of biological diversity on a world scale and play a fundamental role in driving the global atmospheric system.

Coastal and marine environments support and sustain key habitats and living resources, notably fisheries and aquaculture. These resources continue to provide a critical source of food for hundreds of millions of people. The fishing industry supports the livelihoods of an estimated 540 million people worldwide and fisheries supply more than 15 per cent of the animal protein consumed by 4.2 billion people globally. Moreover, the oceans are an increasing source of energy resources and underpin the global economy through sea borne trade.

Marine ecosystems are crucial to planetary support systems. Biodiversity is an evolutionary imperative

John C. Ogden, Director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography and biology professor at the University of South Florida, April 2001, “Maintaining diversity in the oceans: issues for the new U.S. administration,” Environment, 43:3, p. 28.

Marine ecosystems are major national capital assets. In addition to providing valuable goods, such as fisheries and minerals, they provide critical life support services, such as diluting, dispersing, and metabolizing the effluents of society, thus purifying waters for recreation. The value of a healthy ocean is difficult to overestimate. At a national level, economic evaluation of ecosystem services can guide policy decisions on inevitable development versus environment tradeoffs. For example, Florida's ocean policy estimates an annual economic value of $105 billion to ocean-related industries and tourism. Recent attempts to put a monetary value on global ecosystem services have stimulated much discussion as well as more comprehensive and ultimately more useful ways to evaluate the importance of nature. Finally, it is important to acknowledge that the value of nature to human society might be even more fundamental. E. O. Wilson, Pellegrino Research Professor in Entomology at Harvard University, has argued that people have an innate response to biodiversity that links us to our evolutionary origins and stands at the core of humanity and a sense of well-being.