Explained: Why saving the Oceans is as vital as protecting rain forests

Ocean conservation is a social justice issue, says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Saving the oceans is key to fighting the climate crisis, according to Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, American marine biologist and activist, who is a rising figure in the climate movement.

Johnson, 39, is the founder of Ocean Collectiv, a conservation consultancy, and of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank. Protecting the ocean is crucial for people at all economic levels, she said, not just elites who look down their noses at plastic straws.

You have talked a lot about how the oceans are crucial in the fight against climate change. How so? 

When people talk about the destruction of the Amazon, and how forests in general are the lungs of the planet, I always want to jump in and say the ocean is a huge part of that, too. Phytoplankton — these tiny little plants in the ocean — produce a huge percentage of the oxygen we breathe, and the population of phytoplankton is declining. That should be a cause for concern for every single person.

You hear a lot of talk about plastic straws. Is that issue really a big deal or is it greenwashing?

Straws are not the biggest problem facing the ocean, but they are an opportunity to think about what else we can do to reduce our impact on the planet. It really cracked me up the other day. I was walking down the street in Brooklyn, and I saw this guy looking super-stylish carrying an iced coffee in a plastic to-go coffee cup with a plastic lid, and I turned to look, and he’s got a metal straw in the cup. Part of me wanted to just hit it out of his hand and be like, “Dude, you’re totally missing the point! If you’re going to bring a straw, just bring your own cup!”

The United Nations says that 93 per cent of commercial fish stocks are being fished at or beyond capacity. What kind of fish should we avoid eating? 

Eat lower on the food chain. Instead of tuna, eat sardines and anchovies — those little ones that are reproducing super-quickly. Because tuna is so far up the food chain, if we were eating the land equivalent of tuna, it would be like eating whatever kind of dragon eats a lion. It’s this incredible beast, and we will never be able to have sustainable tuna fishing at scale.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Is farmed seafood preferable to wild? 

The sustainability of fish farming is improving, but farmed fish are still often grown in high densities, and so there’s a lot of spread of disease and pollution. But ocean farming of shellfish — oysters, mussels and clams — and seaweed is super-sustainable, and we should all be eating more of those things because they actually just live off of nutrients in the water and sunlight.

In fact, eating shellfish like oysters can be more sustainable than being totally vegan, because it’s just such an efficient and low-carbon way to make protein. Shellfish are absorbing carbon as they’re making their shells. And seaweed is absorbing tons of CO2, because they’re plants. 

Some people think ocean conservation is an elitist issue. Why does it matter for people across the economic spectrum? 

It’s no coincidence which communities bear the brunt of sea level rise, pollution and strengthened storms. Along the coasts, it’s poor communities who are most at risk. It’s those who already have the fewest resources who are most in danger. Ocean conservation is a social justice issue.

What’s the biggest reason for hope? 

Nature is super-resilient if we give it a chance, right? If we stop polluting the ocean, it will be less polluted. If we stop overfishing, in most cases, fish populations will recover. The ocean has already absorbed about 30 per cent of the excess CO2 that we’ve trapped by burning fossil fuels. And the ocean has already absorbed 93 per cent of the heat that we’ve trapped. And so the ocean is trying its best to buffer us from our worst, right? We need to return the favour.

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