This is the first post is a series of guest blogs by Greenpeace, an international environmental organization. This post is by Jackie Dragon, Greenpeace’s senior oceans campaigner.

Horned Puffin on St. George Island

If you were an endangered Steller sea lion, living in Alaska what would you eat? How about an arrowtooth flounder? Or a fin whale? Or maybe a beautiful tufted puffin? You would actually eat fish-and lots of it. And not just any fish, but a particular white fish, called pollock that swim in huge schools near the seafloor in the Bering Sea where all these diners live.

This fish – pollock – is the favorite food of many more Bering Sea predators, and a critical part of the food web. Pollock is also the food that sustains some Native Alaskans – members of an Aleut tribe whose people have hunted fur seals and gathered sea bird eggs on their tiny island out in the middle of the wild Bering Sea for thousands of years.

Fur Seals on St. George Island

As it turns out people all over the world are eating pollock too. If you have ever had fish sticks or California roll sushi you were very likely eating pollock that was caught in the Bering Sea. Huge fishing boats drag gigantic nets through the ocean to catch millions of tons of these bottom dwelling fish each year. As long as these fishing boats are careful to catch just the right amount, and leave pollock in the sea for all the other members of the ecosystem, we can go on enjoying fish sticks forever.

But something else, down in the dark sea, keeps all the predators at the top of this food chain thriving – giant underwater canyons – bigger than America’s Grand Canyon. Living down in the dark canyon depths are tiny corals and sponges. Some of them look like ferns or flowers, or even sticks covered with bubblegum – hence the name “bubblegum coral” – but, in fact, theyare all animals too. Many are filter feeders so the waters around them provide nutrients and attract other hungry animals like fish and crabs.

Corals and sponges grow very slowly, only a few millimeters a year. Over hundreds and even thousands of years they develop into complex structures and they provide important living spaces – called habitat – for fish and crabs and other marine life. Besides delivering food at the lower end of the food web, corals and sponges also provide great places for fish to lay eggs, nurseries for young fish, and good hiding places. Pollock are known to spawn in the canyons. These habitat areas are often the only places in this vast sea where fish can rest, or hide out and find shelter from predators or strong currents. Just like us, fish need suitable places to live.

Sounds good, right? The natural Bering Sea ecosystem has everything it needs to support a thriving food web for the tiniest fish up to the blue whales, the largest mammals on earth, that swim through these rich waters lunching on krill – tiny shrimp-like animals they prefer the most. True enough. But, sadly, something is killing these fragile corals and sponges, striping away the important living spaces they provide.

Northern Fur Seals on St. Paul Island

The same fishing boats that deliver fish sticks to dinner plates around the world are destroying the coral and sponge habitat in the canyons. Unfortunately, those heavy fish-filled nets bump along the canyon seafloor as they search for more and more low-swimming pollock, destroying any fragile corals and sponges that are in their path.

There is some good news though! Most pollock is caught outside of these special Grand Canyons of the sea. If the fishing boats avoid fishing in the Bering Sea canyons we can ensure that the corals and sponges, so important for this complex food web, will be protected and continue to provide habitat for fish and other marine life.

Submersible Operations in Bering Sea

That’s why we took our Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, equipped with scientists and small submarines, to the Bering Sea. We dove deep into the canyons using a ROV, remotely operated vehicle, and two mini-submarines to explore. To provide a sense of the scale of these deep-sea pockets, both the Pribilof and Zhemchug Canyons in the Bering Sea are larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon itself. We wanted to bring back video so fishery managers and fishing companies could see the fragile habitat at risk in the canyons. Perhaps you would like to see what we found? If being a submarine pilot sounds like fun then check this out. You can explore the canyons for yourself and see all the life we need to protect.

That is why Greenpeace and others who care are asking fishery managers to: Protect the buy cheap viagra Being Sea Canyons! It is not too late to protect this amazing ecosystem. We can protect the Bering Sea for future generations through the creation of Marine Protected Areas-including fully protected marine reserves-that restrict fishing gear that damages vital habitats.

You can sign up to protect our oceans and join us as we send a message to local governments and fisheries councils to protect this amazing ecosystem.

This entry reflects the author’s personal judgments and does not represent the views of the United States Government or the Department of State.