Saving The Origin - Ocean Conservation
~A blog by Aniruddh Tiwari for ‘World Oceans Day’
The ocean: a body of water, and a phenomenon so immensely majestic and expansive, so unexplored and mysterious, so pure and absolutely awe-inspiring and yet so easily neglected and abhorrently abused by humans. Imagine having the gift of life given to you by this very body of water, the gift of climate and survivable land given to you and yet you completely neglect it.
While humans have always lived off of the things that the ocean has had to provide to us, we have shown neglect towards it by polluting it, overexploiting its resources and showing a great deal of neglect towards its many inhabitants. Multiple species that reside in the oceans are tragically facing extinction at a tremendously alarming rate due to the sheer damage humans are doing to it. Perhaps it is as a response to these atrocities that numerous organizations and groups of people have set off on a mission to conserve the ocean and its very fragile components. The movement is a collective effort known as ocean conservation that aims at protecting the ocean from further destruction and potentially reverse the harm that humans have already done to it.
But what caused us to reach a stage where conservation is needed anyways?
Well, the answer to that is rather intuitive. Humans require resources to fend for themselves and when there are many of us, we will need more resources ; and in a world driven by harsh and cutthroat capitalism, we will need these resources at an exponential rate and speed.
We need space to live in, causing us to exploit coastal areas which greatly topples the balance of the species living near the coasts, and destroys coral reefs that grow on such locations. You see, the balance of concentrations between a vast variety of elements in water and its temperature along with its climate is what is most important for species thriving within it, and when people disturb this balance knowingly or unknowingly, things go south for such organisms and they begin to die off.
Another great example of things which we are destroying knowingly or otherwise, are coral reefs. Marine biologists call coral reefs the epicenter of marine life, meaning these are locations where marine life can be found in the highest and most varied amounts by a long shot. Disturbing the balance of these pristine and delicate areas due to overfishing, excavation, excessive ecotourism and increased levels of CO2 in the oceans can cause these reefs to begin dying off which greatly impacts the marine ecosystem. Many local inhabitants of islands with reefs are using cyanide and dynamite farming to extract immense amounts of fish which is obviously dealing a gigantic blow to the health of these reefs, further propagating the issue at hand.
Another lethal example, this one being the most widespread, of harm we are causing to the oceans is through oil and carbon dioxide. While shipping oil in large and improperly handled containers, we are causing oil spills which impact the fish and marine life of the area where the spill has occurred. The oil creates a lethal layer in which fish may swim and suffocate, and also blocks off the sunlight from marine life situated below the ocean surface. The right whale population of the US east coast has infamously been endangered due to this very issue and many others are being added to the list as time goes on. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is what the atmosphere of the earth has seen a large rise of. The CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere readily dissolves in the water of the ocean causing temperature rise which stifles the ability of marine life to breathe and reproduce.
Is there anything that can even be done about this, then?
Of course there is. The point of painting the picture of these atrocious realities is not to cause panic and hopelessness but to point towards the nature of humans which can definitely be devilish at times, but also rather empathetic and understanding as well. People have not only come together to build impressive efforts to prevent further harm to the oceans, but to also reverse the impact of the blow already dealt to it.
The United States has established the fishing and conservation of living resources laws in 1966 which has allowed for the construction of marine conservation sites across the country. The Scottish parliament in 2010 infamously passed the marine act which made provisions of licensing and enabled seal conservation and marine life conservation efforts.
Some of the largest organizations that are aimed at conserving marine life throughout the world are Ocean wise, Mission Blue, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Marine Conservation Institute and Blue Frontier campaign. Across the world, scattered sporadically yet effectively, are also voluntary marine conservation areas (VMCAs) and marine protected areas (MPAs). Multiple laws have been enforced across the EU and USA to ensure overfishing is strictly regulated and prevented. Many scientific advances have also invented techniques like TED devices, that exclusively aim at monitoring the turtle population in coastal areas and regulating activities that are causing population decrease. PSATs (Pop-up satellite archival tag) are also being used across the board to monitor marine life population across different areas and warn experts and government agencies about disturbance in coastal areas.
WWF, the United Nation and other independent organizations affiliated to different countries are all working overtime to be able to reverse the damage that has been done to marine life. WWF has supported a large range of coastal communities and has given them opportunities to learn about marine life.
All in all, the reason the oceans have dilapidated in their conditions all along has always been because of the way humans have treated it. The gift the oceans have given us throughout the years is unparalleled, all the way from the elements of life like water, the rain cycle, to a wide variety of species that directly affect the legacy of us humans. The cause of conservation is really important and should concern every single one of us so that we could secure a safer future for our planet.
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