Today is World Oceans Day, and the theme of this year is Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet. Many people across the globe are unaware or even indifferent to the role of the ocean. The ocean play a huge part in the ecological stability of our planet’s many ecosystems. If our oceans were to become toxic and unable to support oceanic life, consequently life on land would degenerate as well. While the death of the oceans may not be exactly imminent, there is little doubt that the lack of human actions, puts it at risk. Let’s take a look at four of the biggest threats to the ocean and their effect.
1. Pollution
First, we’ll start off with pollution! According to UNESCO, more than 80 percent of ocean pollution is land-based, comprised of agricultural runoff, untreated sewage, and hundreds of millions of tons of plastics. Each of these forms of pollution have devastating chemical and physical consequences for ocean ecology. Pollution not only effects humans but the organisms that reside within, and depend on ocean health for survival as well. This doesn’t even include the damage inflicted by oil and other toxic chemical spills that occur regularly.
2. Acidification
Next up, one of the scarier sounding problems on this list, acidification! Acidification is the result of carbon dioxide being dissolved into our oceans, lakes, and rivers, creating a chemical reaction that alters the pH levels. This alteration reduces the seas’ saturation of calcium carbonate minerals, which are fundamental to organisms that use these minerals to build their shells and skeletons, including corals and all shelled animals. Acidification also reduces oxygen levels, as a result these areas become “dead zones”, in which no life is supported.
3. Overfishing
Moving on to the problem of overfishing! While it may seem wonderful to live in a world where even the most landlocked areas can enjoy a seafood dish, our insatiable desire for it has led to vast overfishing. The problem is that many fisherman use indiscriminate fishing practices that wipe out entire ecosystems, consequently reducing the pelagic stock. With the reduction of pelagic stock, fishermen turn to trawling the seafloor for viable product. Searching the ocean floor destroys fragile environments that can take decades or even centuries to recover, if they do at all. This is to say nothing of the millions of tons of non-targeted species that become bycatch, much of which is simply thrown away in an alarming display of waste and disregard.
4. Coral Degradation
Finally, let’s talk about coral reefs! Coral reefs aren’t just pretty sights under the surface they directly impact life at sea and on land. They do this by protecting coastal shores from storm damage and providing habitat for a multitude of marine organisms. The marine organisms protected by the reef are all part of the planet’s intricate food web. Each of the aforementioned threats to the ocean in this article have highly destructive effects on coral, some irreversible. Just as our lands suffer in multiple ways from the destruction of forests, our oceans suffer greatly from the destruction of coral reefs.
Related articles: 5 Causes of Ocean Degradation and The Growing Trash Problem in Hawaii
Featured Image from Ant Rozetsky/Unsplash
