Growing up by the sea in Larchmont and East Hampton, N.Y., author, documentary filmmaker and longtime conservationist Susan Cohn Rockefeller (at right) spent her summers riding the waves and “digging that perennial hole to China,” she says.
Today, she still spends the summer months by the water, paddle boarding through quiet bays in East Hampton (she was recently named Paddle Diva of the Week by Paddle Diva) and swimming and sailing off Maine’s rugged coastline with her husband, David Rockefeller and their children. “I feel very much at peace by the ocean,” she says. “It’s part of my DNA.”
But she has grown increasingly alarmed in recent years over the oceans’ rapid deterioration. “The oceans are in serious, serious trouble,” says Rockefeller, chairwoman of the powerful Ocean Council for Oceana, the world’s largest international ocean conservation organization. “Our oceans are dirty. Fish are increasingly toxic and are disappearing. Too much plastic is being dumped into the ocean. We have to work hard to make changes now to prevent the oceans’ irreversible collapse.”
Rockefeller has been working for years to educate the public about how pollution and carbon emissions are hurting the planet. In 2008, she co-produced the award-winning documentary, A Sea Change, about Sven Huseby’s worldwide journey to see firsthand how pollutants are destroying our oceans. In 2003, she produced “Richard Nelson’s Alaska,” for the PBS series Natural Heroes. She is also the author of Green at Work: Finding a Business Career That Works for the Environment.
So it was only natural that Rockefeller said yes when she was asked in 2009 to lead Oceana‘s prestigious Ocean Council, a select group of environmental and policy leaders who are trying to save the world’s oceans. “I felt like I needed to help people understand the issues, and urge them to take action,” she explains.
Oil Spills Hurt Us All
While the Gulf Oil Spill certainly captured our attention for months, many people still think it’s “a problem over there, somewhere,” she says. “We need to realize that the ocean is one interconnected water system and what is going to affect the Gulf and elsewhere is going to affect all of us.” For a long time to come.
“What we have learned from previous oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez is that oil tends to sink into the sediments, where it can reemerge and contaminate the ecosystem for decades to come,” says Oceana scientist Margot Stiles. “What makes this spill different from the others is the extensive use of dispersants, which have broken the oil into billions of tiny particles, preventing it from being fully removed from the ocean and exposing many more deep-sea creatures to the spill than would otherwise be harmed.”
No More Fish In the Ocean?
One of the biggest threats to our oceans — and the future of the planet — is the acidification, which is dramatically changing the chemistry of our seas. (Check out the NRDC‘s Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification.) Rockefeller learned just how acidic our oceans are when she co-produced A Sea Change, which was inspired by environmental writer Elizabeth Kolbert’s sobering 2006 article in The New Yorker called “The Darkening Sea: What Carbon Emissions Are Doing To The Ocean.“
Acidic oceans are putting plankton called pteropods — a basic feeding block of the ocean — at serious risk because they are having a harder time calcifying their shells, which they need to survive. “We can have people arguing about global warming for the next decade, but we have the science showing that carbon dioxide from the cars we drive and from other things is having an adverse affect on the ocean,” says Rockefeller.
Including killing off other ocean life. “Oceana scientist Jeff Short said that if the ocean continues to become more acidic, that in just 50 to 200 years we might not have lobsters or any shellfish left, much less coral, which is also critical to ocean health.”
More than a billion people — particularly women and children — rely on fish as their major food source, says Rockefeller, who is also a champion of women and children in need. (Her most recent documentary, Making the Crooked Straight, about Dr. Rick Hodes’ extensive work in Ethiopia, debuted in April on HBO). “I can’t stand to think that we are destroying the oceans and that people who are already vulnerable — especially women and children — are going to have that much more difficulty finding food.”
Overfishing poses another huge problem for our oceans, council member and actor Ted Danson tells Tonic. “Humans have become too effective at catching fish,” he says. “Since the 1950s, 90 percent of the big fish — marlins, tuna, swordfish and sharks — are gone. Beyond those big predatory species, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization says that 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are overfished or fully fished. If we keep fishing at our current rate, the result is quite simple: No fish. No fishermen. No future.”
Oceana has been working with the World Trade Organization to put an end to fishing subsidies that allow unsustainable fishing to continue around the world, he says. “We have helped establish protections for the big predatory fish like sharks and bluefin tuna.”
What We Can Do To Help Preserve the Ocean
The oceans are in trouble, for sure. But there’s a lot we can do to help improve them, says Rockefeller. “Oceans provide us with so much,” she says. “A toxic ocean has major health implications for us. Our health depends on the health of the ocean.”
Our behavior needs to change — and fast, she says. “There’s no easy answer but we can start with small stuff,” she says.
Here’s What You Can Do To Help:
- Say No To Plastic: “Plastic is very harmful to the ocean,” says Rockefeller. “It has toxic effects on birds and fish and ultimately on us.”
Rockefeller is a big fan of Dianna Cohen, who founded the Plastics Pollution Coalition, which is working to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impacts worldwide. “She added a fourth R to the three R’s — reduce, reuse, recycle — and refuse,” says Rockefeller. “Refuse to use plastic so that it’s not added to the waste stream.”
- Stop Relying On Oil: “We need to get off fossil fuels. Off-shore drilling is bad for our oceans — not just because of oil spills, but because we are drilling deeper and deeper in the ocean for more oil. There are entrepreneurial opportunities to be had to help get us off of oil. We have the power to create new energy sources, which will be good for the environment and the economy — and not destroy what’s there.”
- Educate Yourself On the Best Fish to Eat: “If you go to the Oceana website, you can get good information on which fish are safe to eat, which are sustainable catches and which are local.” You want to make sure the fish you are eating is healthy, which is why buying wild is best. “We were in Chile in February because Oceana had a campaign to create better policy on the use of antibiotics in farm-raised salmon there. Chile uses 600 times the amount of antibiotics to raise their fish. They are using a drug that has been outlawed in the United States, which is a cousin of Cipro. So if your kids are eating salmon from Chile, they are going to become somewhat immune to antibiotics when they need them. Salmon from Norway is better because they don’t use as much antibiotics.” The same goes for mercury. “Pregnant and nursing mothers, women of child-bearing age and young children are told not to eat more than four to six ounces of tuna a week or else they could end up with mercury poisoning,” she says.
- Eat Less Chicken, Beef, Swordfish and Other Big Fish: “There’s a lot of polluted run-off from dairy and chicken farms and the beef industry,” she says. “Heavy fertilizers, pesticides and related waste run into the oceans, making them more polluted.” Avoiding eating large fish will help. “With 90 percent of our largest fish gone from overfishing, we need to conserve what’s left and rebuild those resources,” she says.
- Speak Up and Be Heard: “Get involved with an ocean advocacy group to support conservation measures,” she says. “Pick one and get active in that organization. Anyone can become a Wave Maker at Oceana.org and send emails to senators, Congress and President Obama about the ocean. Every email counts.”
Rockefeller is getting conversations going about the environment with her jewelry company, RocknRola, which sells tags with messages like “Wake up” and “Nature Rocks.” All proceeds go to Oceana.
“When women see the jewelry I made that has a message on it like, ‘Stop Idling,’ another woman might ask, ‘What does that mean?’ And she will explain it. It has a snowball effect.”
A Hopeful Future — With Your Help
Rockefeller hopes that people everywhere will do their part to save our oceans. “As a mom, you want a planet your children and grandchildren will inherit that won’t be totally spoiled by oil spills and toxic fish. We have a tough road ahead. But we can do it.”
Photos courtesy of Susan Cohn Rockefeller and Oceana.