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The potential health benefits of protecting marine
biodiversity
New Zealand is one of 12 countries responsible for 96% of
the world’s high seas bottom trawling.1
The damage by bottom trawling to marine ecosystems is causing mounting
international condemnation.2 There are calls
for an immediate international moratorium on such trawling while governance to
protect marine biodiversity is negotiated. The New Zealand Government has
rejected an immediate international moratorium but agrees on the need for
progress.
The damage wrought by trawling should concern health
professionals given the health-related reasons for conserving marine
biodiversity:
- Supplying
pharmaceuticals—The oceans are relatively unexplored for new
pharmaceuticals but high levels of endemism on seamounts and deepwater vents
suggest large potential. One review for novel compounds described in the
literature in the year 2000 detailed 124 marine chemicals with potentially
promising in vitro cytotoxicity for
murine and human tumour cell lines.3 Six such
compounds were from New Zealand marine species (five sponge species and a
tunicate). Another review covering 2001-2002 reported studies of eight marine
compounds from New Zealand with anti-tumour
properties.4 One compound from a Pelorus Sound
sponge inhibits human myeloid leukaemic cells5
and may be more effective than existing anticancer
agents.6 New Zealand workers have also studied
compounds from marine bryozoans, some of which have potent anti-tumour activity
and antimicrobial activity in
vitro.7
A key drug for treating
leukaemia in children and adults (cytarabine or Ara-C) has already been
developed based on studies of substances from a Caribbean
sponge.8 One recent review observed that:
“the marine environment has proven to be a very rich source of extremely
potent compounds that have demonstrated significant activities in anti-tumour,
anti-inflammatory, analgesia, immunomodulation, allergy, and anti-viral
assays.”9
- Fish
as a food source—Given evidence for fish consumption protecting
against cardiovascular disease in at-risk
populations,10 there are potential benefits in
maintaining adequate supplies (along with alternative plant-based sources of
omega-3 fatty acids such as flaxseed). To ensure the sustained productivity of
fish biomass, it is necessary that the marine food chain is protected from
disruption caused by trawling (ie, from damage to seafloor biota and physical
structure along with damage from stirred up silt). There also appear to be
productivity benefits of marine reserves on adjacent fisheries.
In summary, there are important health-related
reasons why marine biodiversity needs better protection. The New Zealand
Government can facilitate this by leading moves for an international moratorium
on high seas bottom trawling, and by substantially expanding marine reserves in
our waters and on the high seas including in the Southern Ocean.
Nick Wilson Senior
Lecturer (Public Health)Wellington
School of Medicine and Health
SciencesOtago
University(nwilson@actrix.gen.nz)
- Gianni
M. High Seas Bottom Trawl Fisheries and their Impacts on the Biodiversity of
Vulnerable Deep-Sea Ecosystems: Options for International Action. IUCN/the World
Conservation Union, Natural Resources Defense Council, WWF International,
Conservation International, 2004.
- IUCN/the
World Conservation Union. Third IUCN-World Conservation Congress 2004 Resolution
051, Recommendation 018. Bangkok, 17-25 November 2004.
- Mayer
AMS, Gustafson KR. Marine pharmacology in 2000: Antitumor and cytotoxic
compounds. Int J Cancer. 2003;105:291–9.
- Mayer
AMS, Gustafson KR. Marine pharmacology in 2001-2: antitumor and cytotoxic
compounds. Eur J Cancer. 2004;40:2676–2704.
- Miller
JH, Rouwe B, Gaitanos TN, et al. Peloruside A enhances apoptosis in
H-ras-transformed cells and is cytotoxic to proliferating T cells. Apoptosis.
2004;9:785–96.
- Gaitanos
TN, Buey RM, Diaz JF, et al. Peloruside A does not bind to the taxoid site on
beta-tubulin and retains its activity in multidrug-resistant cell lines. Cancer
Res. 2004;64:5063–7.
- Yao
B, Prinsep MR, Nicholson BK, Gordon DP. The pterocellins, novel bioactive
alkaloids from the marine bryozoan Pterocella vesiculosa. J Nat Prod.
2003;66:1074–7.
- Grifo
F, Rosenthal J. Biodiversity and human health. Washington DC: Island Press;
1997:22.
- Newman
DJ, Cragg GM. Marine natural products and related compounds in clinical and
advanced preclinical trials. J Nat Prod. 2004;67:1216–38.
- He
K, Song Y, Daviglus ML, Liu K, et al. Accumulated evidence on fish consumption
and coronary heart disease mortality: a meta-analysis of cohort studies.
Circulation. 2004;109:2705–11.
- Roberts
CM, Bohnsack JA, Gell F, Hawkins JP, Goodridge R. Effects of marine reserves on
adjacent fisheries. Science.
2001;294:1920–3.
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