“Common Ground: Oregon’s Oceans,” a 30-minute documentary, spurred a lengthy debate about ocean protection in a University lecture hall Tuesday.
Karen Meyer, the director of the film and co-founder of Green Fire Productions, said she intended for the documentary to inspire a dialogue. Meyer is holding panel events around the state to discuss Oregon’s oceans. Joining her in Lillis Hall were five expert panelists.
Before playing the documentary, Meyer showed a ten-minute “Sea Album” with a compilation of ocean images from around the world. The audience of more than 100 people murmured at the sight of the colossal 1964 tidal wave in Alaska, then they chuckled when a girl from Queens, New York watched a horseshoe crab on the coast and proclaimed “I don’t like no arthropods.”
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy was in attendance and she commended the work of Green Fire Productions and Meyer for starting a much-needed conversation.
“It’s my privilege to do a little bit to advertise and help this conversation,” Piercy said.
The documentary focused on the issue of creating marine preserves in order to combat the over-fishing and habitat destruction of the West Coast. Throughout the film, colorful footage of coral and rockfish depicted the diverse ecosystem in Oregon’s oceans.
Craig Cornelius, a dive master on the coast, said “There’s stuff out here you won’t see anywhere else.”
The documentary endorsed marine preserves within the three miles off the coastline where the state regulates the water. With income from salmon and rockfish steadily decreasing, the issue of ocean regulation is gaining attention throughout Oregon.
Mark Hixon, a professor at Oregon State University, cited the declining populations of rockfish as one source of evidence for marine preserves.
“These species are distributed so evenly over the West Coast slope that the entire area has to be protected,” he said.
The documentary included the opinions of fishermen whose livelihoods could be endangered by the strict rules of marine preserves. The effectiveness and necessity of marine preserves as well as the role of stewardship for the ocean are ongoing issues facing much of the world.
When the panel discussion began, the panelists and audience members had a lot to say about the possibility of implementing marine preserves in Oregon.
“There’s more than one way to protecting marine habitats,” said panelist Mike Graybill, manager of the protected wildlife area South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Panelist Selina Heppell from Oregon State University’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife explained that reserves come in many different sizes, depending on their goals, but having a large network of reserves is even better than having only one.
Panelist Onno Husing, a member of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council and the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association, a non-profit with ties to the fishing industry, said that the documentary was misleading in depicting an unhealthy Oregon ocean. He said that the fisheries industry is a great story of change and proposed making a new Common Ground with the positive outlook of the work that is being done.
Student Tuula Rebhahn said the discussion was extremely informative.
“I think they had a good diversity of opinions on the subject,” she said.