#6 Mineral Wealth of the Sea

Some people have calculated it very soon that we were poisoned.

Frank and I.

Chose a lack of oxygen and he's basically

told absolutely so vital necessity

of the scene against too much pollution.

The voice of Captain Jacques gusto with the warning that man must heed

the pollution of the ocean is the topic of this edition of the program series

down to the sea.

For our program on pollution we talked to Captain Castillo a household name in the

area of Oceanography. To Congressman Bob Wilson of San Diego and somewhat of an

amateur oceanographer himself and to one of the world's leading authorities on ocean

pollution. Dr. Willard J north of the California Institute of Technology's Marine

Science Laboratory. We first asked Dr North to define pollution of the

ocean.

I think that. Pollution as defined

by the state of California as a fair trial notation in that

product and it's the state shows that it's unreasonable

interference with a beneficial year.

I don't people define pollution as.

Any alteration whatsoever. Caused by man

and. The planet environment. This.

Is perhaps a little too restrictive I think.

However when a sewage discharge of oil or dust real

pollution and factories are squashed into the ocean or

that that's not forms of pollution granted but what other types are there.

Well. There's a lot gets into the

ocean from the atmosphere. And we put a

lot of our waste into the atmosphere that eventually find their way into the

ocean a good example of this is the lat we use bad in our.

Gasolines in the form of the ingredient. After all they.

Are technically known as tetraethyl bad.

And there's a molecule of lead and if. And when

the gasoline is burned in an internal combustion engine This lad

is favorite. Charged the atmosphere

from there and carry. I wins out over the

ocean. Some of it dissolves into the sea that you find in.

The remotest parts of the earth.

In the Antarctic after in Greenland in the middle of the Pacific at the greatest that

it's everywhere.

But when one drives a car using ethanol what is polluting the ocean.

That's right a little better.

Dr. North went on to explain how a scientific investigation has provided us with

reliable information about the presence of lead in the sea or around us.

This was done by Dr Clare Patterson at the California Institute of

Technology. He was quite interested in

seeing how the average level of lead

in the environment.

Behaved. As a function of time.

And he wanted to know what it was like how concentrated

lead was in the environment before man

really. Developed technology.

As intensively as we have so he has taken water

from. Glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.

And analyzed them for their land content. And

found very low levels and he was able to date

these. Samples so that he knew very accurately

at. What time this water became frozen and the

glaciers. Doing this. For

more recent waters he found that the level of the ad

took a rather moderate. Increase. I believe

it was just shortly before the birth of Christ and it was at this time that the

Romans do go up the technology of smelting lead to.

Use in. Construction lad

smelling is continued down in Europe down through the

years and. Looking at Paterson's curse the

light goes. And continues to rise slowly.

But you see a very dramatic increase.

Shortly after the invention of the automobile and the use of tetraethyl

that. Became common and the amount of

light in the environment has just skyrocketed since then.

Now what does this mean that we actually notice this particularly

well.

I'm really thinking about the effects on human beings and the animals and

plants that inhabit the earth with us. It's a very hard question to

answer with. Many of these universal pollutants

because we don't have. What we call a

control. And it is we can't find people now

who don't have land at high levels in their body.

So that we have no. Population that is lead

free with which to compare.

A. Common man. You know there's growing

concern about the. Massive use of insecticides.

Many of the same problems would apply here.

Yes we're we're running into some very serious problems and quite

interestingly of all of. These.

So-called hard pesticides were developed in the western world it

turns out that they're being. Used.

Very intensively and some of the glass or parts of the world or

controlling some of the things like the malaria mosquito and the yellow

fever mosquitoes so forth here we use them primarily

against I recall Joe Pass. And to some extent we can dispense

with them. The trouble with. The hard past is I

just that. They're so toxic that. Nothing

can attack them. Right now. Most Wace

come from. Civilisation are degraded in one way or

another or usually by bacteria. But they hide past the

sides don't degrade. And they just accumulate in the

environment.

We went on to ask about the known effects of pesticides and other pollutants on the wildlife

of the sea. For instance the pelican that has been such a common bird along the California

coast until recently.

We have what are called food chains. Rather simple

organisms like planets and plankton. Get eaten by

larger animals. Say for instance sardines. And

the sardines are in there.

In the course of the food chain by some larger fish

and maybe a pelican.

Eats the larger fish I have each. Passage

along the food chain.

That DDT rather pesticide gets concentrated the.

Sardine will take the DDT. Out of the.

Plankton. And it will go into its fatty

tissues and stay there and then. The.

Sardine like screen. Most of the plankton actors

metabolize them. But it will continue eating

plankton and keeping the DDT in its body. DDT

never gets excrete it so it just builds up there. So that

eventually you find that the concentration of DDT in the in the sardine is

much higher than it is in the plankton. Likewise the

larger fish that eats the sardine. Concentrates.

The DDT again you find that the level is 5 or 10 times higher

and in that predator than it is in a sardine.

The bridge tend to be quite high up in these food chains. So that we find

extraordinarily high levels in them.

The carnivorous burns like pelicans sell for eagles.

Get lots of DDT. Appears to interfere

with the formation of the shell in the egg.

And. So that the birds lay eggs that are.

Very thin shells and chances for Michele breaking during the

incubation period is very high. Some

cases virtually I want 100 percent certainty. For

instance I believe the pelican is the state bird of Louisiana are

there any pelicans there.

Karl Hobbs of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has told me that he

examined. Power like an ass and found that.

The eggs are. Very faint shalwar are breaking.

Way down in Baja California.

Presumably because of a lack of Agriculture there's

very little actual from the land but it's must be

moving south and the ocean currents.

Well this brings up another question what about the spread

for forms of pollution in the ocean itself how far can a pollutant spread.

It depends on the polluted sewage. Probably a.

Few miles at most. But. Some of the. More

persistent. Things like that. Occur on a

worldwide basis they find DDT in the body to lose out in the

middle of the Pacific Ocean.

They find a lead in the Arctic waters and we

question Dr. north about the reports we had seen concerning bear on the undersea deserts and

some of our harbors not just in harbors.

Several places along our coast there. Undersea desert

once were very light here. This.

Results primarily from our.

Ignorance of the way of life in this city.

In many cases the losses. Could have been prevented.

With our present day now right.

Pollution is a much used word today and yet the word is no newer than the problem

in the March 969 issue of oceans magazine. There appeared a colorful

quote that described the condition of the river water in the city of London some 270

years ago.

The publication titled hints to Brewers said in the year 17 0 to

Thames Water taken up about Greenwich at low water when it is free from all brackish unus of

the sea and has in it all the fact and so leads from this great city of London

makes a very strong drink it will of itself or meant wonderfully and

afterwards do purgation and three times thinking it will be so strong that

several Sea commanders have told me that it has often put their mother the nurse.

It seems impossible that man could succeed in polluting the vast world ocean that

covers 70 percent of this planet. We posed this question to Congressman

Bob Wilson of San Diego.

Well it's been proved that it's possible not just with oil leaks

but such things as DDT and other chemicals that

come from manufacturing activities close to shore or in the Great Lakes

area particularly they call I like your you the Dead Sea now because the

fish disappeared because of so much pollution draining it off the industrial areas

around that. This is a disgrace it's a national disgrace

and many people are particularly legislators nationally are

proposing federal controls a more stringent regulation

more research and development in the methods of. Controlling

pollution and I believe these methods are going to actually save the

country and the citizens money rather than costing them money. What immediate steps are being

taken to help in this problem of pollution at sea. Well of course

the Department of Interior through the Bureau of Fisheries and through there

there are other active ocean related activities are taking second looks on the

leasing of oil rights and so forth offshore

ensuring certain protective measures which should have been put into effect a

long time ago. They are doing many things to

to improve it but until we actually get some tough laws

on manufacturing waste. Saying that they're

not dumped into streams which eventually wind their way into the ocean we're going to

end up with tremendous cost in trying

to replenish the marine life and to make

this dream is in the waters of our nation. From a recreational standpoint

and from a from a health standpoint more as they were a couple hundred years ago.

Pollution can take many forms in the sea and cause many different problems.

Some like massive oil leaks are easy to see and cause great public concern and

rightfully so. But other results of ocean pollution are not so obvious to the

layman. Dr. North has conducted a great deal of research into one of the problems

caused by excessive sewage outfall the disturbance of the delicate ecology of the

ocean floor that has resulted in the destruction of life supporting kelp beds.

I. Myself am concerned that if they are getting

account restored to. Certain areas in Southern California where it

disappeared. Plants. Form the

tall. Structures there correspond to

trees. And forests of giant

kelp under water just like forests on land there.

Very rich in plant life and animal life. And.

In fact. Many ecologists who considered him

to be. One of the three or four types of communities that

form the richest. Centers of life.

And found anywhere on the earth. They compare for instance with coral reefs and

tropical rainforests. As being.

Outstanding examples of. Rich communities.

In Southern California. We had. Kelp beds.

Very important and significant ones disappear.

Starting at about 1935. The

kelp beds that used to be out near Los Angeles. The powerhouse for

east coast began to dwindle.

And there was not a single plant left. Same thing started about

940 here in San Diego. If you go down and look at

one of these kelp beds as the. Plants are growing why you find

that there's a small grazing organism in the sea urchin.

It occurs naturally in kelp beds. Appears to have.

Gotten out of control and is there in millions and millions just armies.

Moving slowly along the bottom like locusts on land destroying vegetation

sea urchin eats everything in its path.

After.

The. Plants and animals are gone why there's nothing

there to see or juice they reign supreme and prevent anything

else from developing near the sewer outfall of

the.

Urchins. Stay there. Populations persist and

nothing returns. We think that probably there's a nutritional

relationship between sewage and sheer chance. Dr.

Mary Clark of San Diego State College as a matter of fact about.

This the best evidence we have on this. First we

thought that the urchins might be picking up the little Swiss. Solid

material settles out here so I was but. Dr.

quiet showed that the urchins with all their spines and two feet presented an

enormous surface to the water and I think an absorbed dissolved

organic matter very efficiently. And in fact.

And started. Even to read about concentrations that

exists around Sioux Falls they can take up enough to

probably make a living or to keep from total starvation

because they have the surface area they can make it live there.

And prevent other things from coming back. Essentially they

live in soup 100 years ago this probably didn't happen.

Because we had an animal along our coast and exterminated

in the hundreds and that animal was the sea otters. And sea otters

eat Syrians. But now we don't have any animal

that is very efficient at killing sea urchins. So we've

gotten. Into the problem of. The kelp beds disappearing and

coming back. Hundred Years

ago the current bench probably never disappeared. The first insult was

destroying this sea otter the second insult was. Providing

with sewage which kept the urchins alive. And now

you know where to restart the count beds. We find we have to

man has to step in and fill an ecological role of the sea otter and

we go out and kill these. Certain number of these urchins

to reduce their. Concentration to the point where kelp can come back and it

works. And 1963 we started trying to

restore the kelp bed at Point Loma here in San Diego.

And. There were only a few hundred plants left.

Now there are probably about. 10 million plans.

And we. Probably are.

Many millions in sea urchins at. That time and gradually been

able to bring that back. It's.

It's now about two thirds restored and in destroying some of these sea

urchins you're not disturbing nature's balance you're restarting it.

That what it amounts to this is every indication that we have points in this

direction. He's. Areas dominated by urchins are.

Really barren desert except for the urchins they have a few animals

here and there but they're. They're really impoverished and after we get the

kelp back Kwai swarms of fishes and all kinds of

creatures that feed on the caliper and live in the cow come back in.

Obviously. Thousands of times more life in the area.

And as a result of these activities.

You haven't noticed any ill effects so far we haven't.

While. There is one fact and that is that times count

washes in the tangles betas get tangled in it. That's about

the only one that we've.

Just how are these kelp beds particularly beneficial to us right there.

Well they're beneficial in a number of ways. We.

We fish camp beds very intensively for our fish and

lobster abalone. Both commercial and recreational

fishing. And then the kelp beds are harvested.

The tops are cut off it doesn't. Particularly hurt the plants.

And chemicals are extracted from the kelp fact we.

Probably all of us eat kelp two or three times a day without realizing it and

the. Chemicals are used in the ice cream

salad dressings in toothpaste pharmaceuticals.

We keep where a little bit of kelp on our bodies because

kelp chemicals are used in the manufacture of dyes and

textiles. And we paint a was probably a little kelp in the

pain.

Millions of tons of waste materials are being dumped into the sea. How much

waste can the sea handle. Will we be required to sacrifice the sea floor to

take care of our garbage.

Captain Jack gusto if we are aware I trace sacrificing completed this he thought

our father saw the purpose of being a wastebasket.

We don't realize that we are depending on the sea to such an extent that we

would not survive such a thing. So it is a duty to

preserve the sea for our own preservation. Some people have

calculated that very soon. If we were poisoning the plankton life

in the sea it would choke by lack of oxygen.

And this is basically so it is absolutely a

survival necessity to preserve the scene against too much

pollution. Now when we say for

example that we must preserve the sea does not mean that some

forms of using the sea as you know septic are for waste if it is properly done in

a cleaner way. It can be done but. Let's say for

example we do not hesitate to dehydrate but a dose. I don't understand why we do

where would they stay to D-I going to waste and put it in a package for

which would not but you see it would cost a little more

but it's a necessity a vital necessity.

So it's now we are really witnessing Rice against

time. It is a race between the striking officers which is

uncontrolled pollution generated by increasing population and increasing

investigation on one side and on the other side. Science Marine

Sciences progressing and warning and finding ways to

protect us. Now which is going to win. I am unable to say at the moment because you see

a sharp place. And then of course being in a police state I hope.

That science at least. With time. But it will be in our escape I assure

you. What is at stake is the survival of

mankind. As long as people who do not understand this then this you would be in

danger.

With Captain costal doctor north of Cal Tech and Congressman

Bob Wilson of San Diego took part in this program about pollution. Another in

the series titled down to the sea. Produced by public radio

station KQED SFM at San Diego State College. These programs were

written and prepared for broadcast by your host Tom McManus with the assistance of Ken

Kramer. Music where the series is arranged and performed by Sam Hinton

and a special poetic and narrative passages are read by Cliff Kirk production of

down to the sea was made possible in part by a grant from the Corporation for

Public Broadcasting.

This is the national educational radio network.