LINES IN THE WATER Video Script
LEE SHERMAN Fish populations around the world are shrinking.
Many species are in steep decline after decades of overfishing and pollution.
Climate change, too, is affecting sea life, altering the oceans’
chemistry, physics and biology in ways that are just beginning to be understood.
When fisheries collapse, it’s not only fish and their ecosystems that get
hurt. The people who live in coastal communities feel the impact on their
economies, their families and their way of life.
One solution is to create protected areas called marine reserves. A
growing body of research suggests that reserves — areas that are off-
limits to fishing — can help restore depleted fish stocks and revive
damaged ecosystems.
A small town on Oregon’s rugged southern coast has taken a leadership
role in developing marine reserves. At first glance, Port Orford may seem
an unlikely spearhead for marine reserves, which have met with resistance
in many other fishing communities. Several years ago, local leaders and
fishermen — recognizing the deepening crisis in global fisheries — decided
that marine reserves were inevitable. So when the governor launched an
initiative to create a network of reserves off the Oregon Coast, the town
decided to step up and take an active role.
BLANE STEINMETZ As we like to say with these marine reserves
here, the fishermen too get involved with all this. Instead of having
odds between the scientists and the fishermen, we actually have the scientists
and fishermen working together to get both sides of the picture
and a more rounded view of what’s going on.
LEE SHERMAN The result was the establishment of one of
the state’s first two pilot reserves at a reef called Redfish Rocks
TOM CALVANESE The Redfish Rocks ecosystem. Well, that’s
a very specific area of high rocky relief with emerging rocky pinnacles
that you can see from land very nearshore. It’s home to several species
of rockfish. It’s a very biolgically diverse ecosystem.
LEE SHERMAN Today, scientists at Oregon State University
are part of a multi-agency research project led by the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife to study the effectiveness of Redfish Rocks reserve.
The reef was designated off-limits to fishing in 2008 so the scientists
could investigate how well it protects reef-dwelling organisms and their
habitats.
A big unknown is how often and how far various fish species travel
outside the boundaries of the reserve. To find answers, one OSU study is
using acoustic technologies to track rockfish as they forage for food.
TOM CALVANESE Well, in my work I’m going to be tagging
— I’ve begun to tag I should say — members of six different species. Five
of those species are rockfishes. I’m tagging canary rockfish, China, quillback,
copper and black rockfish. The sixth species is not a rockfish but a
sculpin, and its common name is the cabezon.
SCOTT HEPPELL We go out, and we collect fish, bring the
fish to the surface. We put it in a surgery cradle. And we have salt water being
pumped over its gills to keep it oxygenated. We make a small incision
into the abdomen, and we insert a tag. It’s a pinger really. It’s
a small tag that is battery powered and has a microchip in it. This tag will send
out a chirp. It just says “beep,” here I am. If that fish is within
about 300 to 400 meters of one of our hydrophones, that hydrophone will record
that chirp. And so we insert the tag. We stitch up a couple of sutures
really quick. And then we put the fish into a large cage that we put over
the side with a camera on it. We lower the cage down to the bottom. And
when it gets to the bottom, we pull a release lever, the bottom of the
cage drops out, and we can watch on the camera as the fish swims away
to ensure that it swam away under its own power.
LEE SHERMAN The goal for all the stakeholders is to learn
how and to what extent marine reserves benefit biodiversity in Oregon’s
coastal waters. At stake is nothing less than the long-term sustainability
of the state’s fishing industry, as well as the overall health of
ocean ecosystems.
BLANE STEINMETZ If we can see that with these reserve areas,
with the research, that we are gaining, get that spillover effect to
where it promotes a very sustainable fishery, a lot of the guys fall
into the area where that support it and they will support it.
LEE SHERMAN Together, Oregon’s scientists, fishermen,
lawmakers and community leaders are working toward a healthier future
for oceans and the people who depend on them.