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The Father of All Mass Extinctions
THERE IS A GOOD POSSIBILITY that losses in diversity in the present will surpass anything in the geological past. Facing that specter could shake the very tenets of conservation.
In the mid-1960s, when I first began scuba diving in Puget Sound, the large inland seaway of Western Washington, I was attracted to the sandy undersea bottoms that made up some of the richest subtidal clam beds in the world. On any shallow scuba dive over such bottoms, I would find myself passing over countless clam necks, each marking the presence of a fat clam buried deeply in the sediment, a testament to a diverse and thriving community. One of the richest areas of all was a narrow fjord named Hood Canal. The treasure of clams in this sanctuary, like the tall firs and cedars lining the cool seaway, seemed inexhaustible. Sadly, that turned out not to be the case. A dive into the same cool waters today reveals sandy bottoms nearly devoid of life.
At first glance, one might think that overfishing of the clams must have occurred. But that is not what happened here.
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Conservation magazine is published by the Society for Conservation Biology
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