The next waves

One hundred and fifty years ago, market hunters were slaughtering buffalo on the plains. They'd cut out the tongues, pack them in barrels, and ship them back East, where they were served as a delicacy. Only a few descendants are left front those giant herds - and now, says Carl Safina, we are starting the same process all over again, only this time underwater. "The last buffalo hunt," Safina writes in his new book, Song for the Blue Ocean, is "occurring on the rolling blue prairies of the ocean."

Safina runs the National Audubon Society's Living Oceans program from an office on lower Broadway in Manhattan. He and his staff pressure nations around the world to protect fish and coral reefs from overfishing, pollution, and other assaults. They've had some victories, but the overall trend is not good - human beings today catch fewer fish from the ocean than they did a decade ago, mostly because they've decimated species like the Atlantic cod.

What's surprising about Safina, who was trained as a scientist and now spends much of his time monitoring complex international negotiations, is how easy to understand he is. The passion that runs through his book comes from knowing something the rest of the world hasn't noticed. He has a secret to tell about the three-quarters of the earth that's covered with saltwater.

BILL MCKIBBEN: One of the main messages in your new book about the oceans concerns the importance of fish.

CARL SAFINA: Yes. We try to get people to understand: Fish are wildlife. If you're concerned about animals, you should be concerned about fish.

BM: You would think this message would have gotten through by now. We've all seen about 193 Jacques Cousteau specials over the years.

CS: But a lot of young people don't even know who Jacques Cousteau was. Some people know about coral reefs and how pretty they are, but in temperate areas of the world people only relate to fish as a prop, almost like they're out there to be caught. Somehow a hook seems more natural in the mouth of a fish than in the mouth of a deer. We don't think of fish differently yet.

BM: Is that because we can't see them?

CS: We can't see them, we don't know what they do. Some people think of fish simply as something that's really good fried between two pieces of bread. But when you see them courting each other, you realize that they're pretty complex animals. I'm trying to bring a view of what's beneath the surface up to show to people.

BM: If you had friends who had spent their entire lives in Iowa and you wanted to try to make them understand the majesty of the ocean, how would you go about it?

CS: First of all, I would say, "Are you ever interested in going to the beach or having seafood to eat?" Even if they said no, I would point out that about 80 percent of the oxygen on earth comes from plankton in the oceans.

BM: Now that you've scared them shitless, let's make them love the ocean. How do you go about it?

CS: The ocean is the ultimate womb: a liquid place filled with the living. It's just a wonder drug to go underwater and be suspended - and yet, unlike when you're in the womb, you can be conscious and aware and surrounded by living things. This is the origin of life on earth. I think you can sense that when you're there.

BM: You don't need to he In the tropics, either. I've heard Robert Kennedy, Jr., describe diving In the estuary where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic and what an amazing, rich, almost haunting place it is.

CS: The oceans are so full of beauty. The exquisite beauty of a seabird or a sea turtle is just breathtaking. It certainly gives me an attitude adjustment. I have a boat, and if I ever need to feel not crowded and not harried, I just take it thirty or forty miles from shore and suddenly I feel very small.

BM: Let's get specific for a minute and talk about one of your favorite subjects: giant tuna. In the first chapter of your book, we're hunting them with guys in an airplane. Explain.

CS: I guess the short answer is, these guys hunt these big fish with the aid of aircraft partly because fish are a lot fewer than they used to be, and are now worth so much money. And partly it's a symptom of how we've gotten ourselves into a lot of problems in the oceans because all the technology of the second half of this century, especially military technology, is brought to bear on fishing.

BM: So now that the Cold War's over, the Fish War is on.

CS: Yes, I sometimes say that we declared peace among ourselves and war on fish.

BM: We're used to thinking of tuna on a plate or in a can, but what does a bluefin tuna look like?

CS: The ones we see, obviously, are right near the surface, but they can dive as deep as several thousand feet. They look like zeppelins with the weight gathered in the front.

BM: They're huge, yes?

CS: They're the second-largest - arguably the largest - true fish in the ocean. They weigh up to 1,500 pounds. They're absolutely streamlined. They can move at speeds of up to fifty miles per hour. In fact tuna comes from the Greek word thynnos, "to rush."