Ocean Advocacy
I don't need to be the one to tell you that the earth is mostly covered in ocean. 2/3 of the surface of this rock is covered by the oceans. Over 3 million people make their living as a direct use of oceans in coastal communities all across America. To top it all off, commercial and recreational fisheries, tourism and recreation, and other marine industries generate hundreds of billions of dollars every year, just in America. If you include the goods that are traded on water, the number probably goes to a quadrillion. That's not exactly the right number but I think my point came across.
The ocean is our most important natural resource. Let's figure out why, and what we can do to save it.
Also as a side note: I live in Hawaii. The ocean has a natural beauty that is truly breath taking. Looking at sunrises and waves like this everyday is also a not-so-insignificant part of the ocean's value.
The Ocean and the Climate
The ocean and the climate are linked like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
Elmer is always short tempered and trying to hunt Bugs. The climate has been getting warmer for 100 years, and always trying to heat us out of our day-to-day lives. But Bugs is always too cunning and gets out of trouble. The ocean has always been too powerful and stopped us from noticing any of the problems of the carbon we emit.
From about 1900 until today, the ocean has absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat from human-caused global warming and about one-third of our carbon emissions. The ocean has served as our protector for the past century and has allowed us to usher in the greatest exponential increase in quality of life in human history.
But unfortunately the ocean is just too big to ignore. A range of issues are affecting our oceans, which in turn, affect our coasts and our way of life. A few of those issues are:
Ocean acidification
Sea-level rise
Stronger and more frequent hurricanes
Vitally, these coastal-climate impacts disproportionately harm communities of color, Indigenous communities, poor communities and others that are historically underserved and underrepresented.
Our protector has been saving us for over a century and now we have to figure out how we can come in and see if we can help Bugs stay safe from Elmer's shotgun.
Oceanic Biodiversity
This might be my favorite section to write in the short history of this blog. The ocean is just teeming with extraordinary and vibrant life. There is truly unparalleled variety of species that exist in the ocean.
Our actions have created enormous impacts on the wildlife that live on our coasts and in the high seas. As a result of a multitude of factors including climate change, overfishing, bycatch, and plastic pollution many marine populations are down. And not by a little.
It is widely believed that scientists think we are facing a sixth extinction event. New evidence that would heavily agree with this claim reveals that an estimated 90% of large marine predators have disappeared in recent decades. Marine mammals in every ocean are threatened.
Ocean biodiversity matters for a ton of reasons. Too many for me to list and too many for you to want to read. Here are just a slice of the reasons we should care about the life in the oceans:
1. Food
The ocean constantly provide us with various kinds of livestock. Billions of pounds of it in fact. We would not be having different species of fish and vegetation from the ocean without biodiversity.
2. Cultural Heritage
Some marine animals are unique to specific regions. They don’t live anywhere else in the world. This can mean that species can become identified with cultures and become a piece of their heritage and way of life.
3. Improves Local Economy
Indeed, biodiversity can improve the economy status of a local area. Trust me, tourists will come to the beach.
4. Educational Purposes
The ocean biodiversity can be used for educational purposes. Everyone can learn more on all the things that the ocean has to offer. They may learn it through ecotourism, reading books for fun or studying in school. It helps in raising awareness on the health of the ocean and its marine life.
What can we do about it
Read this book: 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, written by veteran environmental journalist David Helvarg. There are so many ways to help.
Stop eating unsustainably-caught seafood (see Can Guilt Save the Oceans? and carry a sustainable seafood wallet guide)
Don't buy saltwater fish caught in the wild for your aquarium! The methods they use to catch the aquarium fish is awful and often kill fish on 15 to 1 ratio or worse, just to put fish in the aquarium system.
Practice safe and clean boating. Use environmentally-friendly cleaning agents and boat paint, etc. Obey no-wake zones, and watch out for marine life.
Support places organizations that make our oceans safer for all life. Ocean Conservancy, Conservation International, Environmental Defense, and others (this page, lol).
If you take nothing from this article, which is possible, the writing was C+ at best. I would recommend you watch/read/or go to the ocean and find out for yourselves what the ocean has to offer. Someone has to speak up for the ocean, why can't it be us?
