The Changing Ocean and the Impact of Technology: The Role of the Ocean Tracking Network

Abstract

The historic but false vision of the ocean as being so vast and inexhaustible that it would benefit humankind forever has been destroyed during my lifetime. I lived this change, and watched in dismay as it was documented in scholarly publications. The personal experience started in early childhood where summers were spent on the coast in Scituate, Massachusetts. I passed more time in the water with a mask than I did on land. My earliest ocean memories (I was born in 1954 and by 8 years old was a devoted snorkeler) are of a nearshore zone full of life, and of being able to catch cod (Gadus morhua), flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), striped bass (Morone saxatilis), cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus), American lobster (Homarus americanus; duly licensed as a Massachusetts recreational harvester), and dogfish (Squalus acanthias) within a few meters of shore. Within ten years, most of these species were gone, and the few that remained were greatly reduced in numbers, most probably falling victim to overharvesting. This left the American lobster as the major resource for the coastal fisheries.1 Concomitant with the fish declines, other stressors were also rearing their head. Repeated small-scale oil spills occurred,2 fouling beaches and having undocumented consequences for the area’s ecology. Plastic waste began to pile up on the shore, and the ocean began warming. As temperatures rose, southern