By compass directions, the Sargasso Sea’s western limit is marked by the Gulf Stream, the eastern by the Canary Current, the northern by the North Atlantic Current, while the southern limit is marked by the North Equatorial Current and the Antilles Current.
These borders flow in clockwise motion and are dynamic. They change season after season in accordance with the Azores High Pressure Center.
The Sea is named after the genus of free-floating seaweed called Sargassum, named due to early Portuguese encounters with the seaweed, who named it Sargazzo or kelp in Spanish. Sargassum is a form of free-floating seaweed or algae that is unique in the sense that it reproduces vegetatively in the high seas, unlike other forms of floating seaweed that reproduce and originate in the ocean-floor. As such, Sargassum mats are plentiful on the sea’s surface. On the surface, the Sargassum mats provide habitats for a variety of marine organisms such as turtles, which use their platforms for hatchlings to flourish (NOAA, undated).
Beneath the Ocean Floor – Discovery of Ocean Ridge
The Sargasso Sea Alliance – a conservation partnership led by the Bermudian government – highlight three interdependent areas that place a case for scientific conservation efforts over the Sargasso Sea (Sargasso Sea Alliance, 2011). These include first, the unique ecosystem based on the floating Sargassum. Second, the area is a junction in the North Atlantic for migratory species that utilize the mats for food, reproduction and safety. Third, the unique conditions, the Sargasso Sea Alliance argues, are pertinent for research and require great vigilance.
The surface ecosystem is based upon two species of Sargassum that reproduce through fragmentation, and is different from all other varieties of seaweed. Golden-brown in colour, the floating mechanism is possible due gas filled bladders in the Sargassum. Sargassum provide critical habitats for many permanent and migratory species. The drifting of the sargassum makes it collect marine organisms, particularly invertebrates that attract other marine species towards the mats.
The Sargassum hosts more than 145 invertebrate species and over 127 species of fish. There is variance in this biodiversity owing to the season, location in the gyre and the age of the sea-weed. Larger marine species such as sharks and rays that prey on the spawning fish are also of great conservation value. Many spawning species represent rare species of marine life.
Many migrating species of fish such as Bluefin Tuna feed in the Sargassum Sea, which are exploited as a food source but are largely protected in the Sargasso Sea by the natural floating Sargassum.
Sargassum mats have been the source for many myths and legends over the centuries. They led many sailors to believe that their ships would be jammed and trapped in the seaweed in earlier times, which was accompanied with still waters and a lack of surface winds.
These myths had an important role in the conceptualization of the southwestern region of the Sargasso Sea as the Bermuda Triangle, as the passage in the ocean where ships would disappear. The floating Sargassum provides a natural barrier to fishing expeditions, and the Sargasso Sea was recently earmarked to be a world heritage site by the UN, and a report was published in 2016 in this regard (UN, 2016).
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.