Our oceans are not being protected in the same way that it
is supporting life on earth, The oceans and seas of our
earth deserve more protection and support that we are
giving it in our day ad age. Many people are impressed with
the technology we have on earth. But why aren't we using
this research and knowledge to help the environments and
ecosystems that support the life of humanity?
Arguement #1 Humanity is poluting the
ocean with plastic like it is infinite. There are
hundreds of thousands tons of plastic
drifting along in our oceans.
Within the top 10 items found in oceans 6 of them are related to plastic. Plastic is a substance that takes thousands of years to deompose. Many animals do not know any
better than to scavenge for food. Many animals such as turtles eat plastic and are unable to digest it. This causes them to think they are full. Then, without the animals
knowing they starve to death. Animals such as turtles eat jellyfish and in water it is near to impossible to tell a plastic bag apart from a jellyfish. This causes these animals
to slowly get endangered and then they eventually go extinct.
According to IFL science "Plastic litter remains one of the biggest problems facing the world's seas,
along with rising sea levels, climate change, and human-made chemical pollution, such as runoff
from pesticides and fertilizers from farms, industrial waste, and pharmaceuticals."
Arguement #2 Overfishing Nowadays every person eats around 19 kilograms of fish a year. This is almost twice as much as fifty years
ago. This is because of overfishing in the earth's oceans. Overfishing can cause animals to be endangered and eventually go extinct. If
animals go extinct the food chain could collapse causing complete chaos.
The animals that eat the plastic then die and turn out to be the animals we are eating and digesting.
This shows that we as humans are cutting into our own flesh by polluting the oceans. Over 100
Million Tonnes of fish are fished each year, this fish is providing 2.5 billion people with 20 percent of
their per capital protein intake. This means that these 2.5 billion people are eating the microplastics that others
are throwing into the sea.
Overfishing is not only an environmental issue but it also affects us humans. Recorded from an
interveiw by Theguardian.com has a man explaining. "I saw local fishermen returning at the end of
each day with fewer fish to feed their families. I watched as they unloaded their diminished catches,
made up mostly of juvenile fish, and it brought to me the fact that overfishing is not just a
threat to ocean biodiversity."
A big part that is contributing to
overfishing is the massive amounts of
tuna fished in this industry.
Arguement #3 Tourism
Tourism has a huge influence on water pollution, but a huge source is from cruise ships. These ships,
which are a popular vacation choice for many, dump a lot of waste into the ocean every year. Often
they travel into international waters to do so. In these unregulated areas, they’ll dump the untreated
sewage waste of the thousands of people that they have on board.
According to "Sea Going Green" In 2014 about 1 billion gallons, also 3.79 Billion Liters of sewage was
dumped out of these extreme sized cruisers. Even the most environmentally friendly cruisers are
doing their part in the poluion of our seas. These cruisers give off effluents. Effluents are "untreated
streams of waste that flow into our natural water and airways. Smoke, liquid sewage, and and any
other polluting material are all examples of these environmentally-detrimental substances."
Coastal develoupment. Esspecially on coast, it is quite often that almost complete mangroves
are removed, this causing many speices of fish to go extinct. Corals are not only living
organisms but they provide homes as well as food for many fish. While many ships are
dragging their anchors across the protected coral reefs. Coral reefs are also being destroyed by
the tourists while diving. Many break off a piece of coral as a souvernire. This may not seem
like a big loss but imagine 100 people destroying 1 coral a day. This makes 3000 corals a month
and then 36 000 corals a year. This causes complete reefs to die out. Killing fish and leaving no
food for humans.
Deep sea fishing. There is one main and only reason why fish should be dying on the
costs of humans. Food. But people have decided that it would be alright to slaughter
rare fish for fun. This is what causes fish to go extinct. Humans kill for entertainment,
causing extreme damage to marine ecosystems.