Unity will protect the deep blue sea

by Dhaneshi Yatawara

When the sea cast a spell on us we entangle ourselves in the net wondering forever. We all love the ocean. The deep blue ocean is romantic, exciting and amidst all the chaos she creates we still love the time we spend with her. This body of saline water has so much of energy, so much of life in it. Yet how far have we gone to protect her and care for her to keep her healthy and happy.

Did you know that in every square kilometre of the ocean surface approximately 13,000 plastic pieces are floating? And the total input of marine litter put in to oceans worldwide is estimated approximately 1,800 tons every day.

Entangled in her enchantment, those who loved the ocean dedicated a special day to her, to see to her well being and lay a net work to protect her from those who pollute her and destroy her. Thus at the United Nations General Assembly resolution passed in December 2008 establishing World Oceans Day. Since then majority of the people of the world get together to take action to protect the precious ocean and this year the World Oceans Day theme "Together we have the power to protect the ocean" is to show how small actions by individuals can add up to make a big difference. People can promise to change one thing in their lives that will help protect the ocean.

People around the world depend on a healthy, clean ocean in order to survive and thrive. World Oceans Day is the official UN-designated international day of ocean celebration. On June 8 each year, we celebrate the ocean, its importance in our lives, and how we can protect it.

The oceans are facing threats from many sides - pollution, overfishing, and global warming chief among them.

Ocean overfishing is simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves. In the early 1800s the world whale population faced a massacre when the humans started looking for blubber for lamp oil. Sri Lanka has more than 42,000 fishing vessels involved in fishing every day. Approximately 3,200 multi-day fishing vessels operate in EEZ and in high seas. An estimated 12.5 million fishermen operating from some three million vessels, lands around 90 million tons of fish per year.

Commercial

Large, profit-seeking commercial fleets were extremely aggressive, scouring the world's oceans and developing ever more sophisticated methods and technologies for finding, extracting, and processing their target species. Consumers soon grew accustomed to having access to a wide selection of fish species at affordable prices. Faced with the collapse of large-fish populations, commercial fleets are going deeper in the ocean and father down the food chain for viable catches. This so-called "fishing down" is triggering a chain reaction that is upsetting the delicate balance of the sea's biologic system. Illegal fishing and unsustainable harvesting still plagues the industry.

If overfishing left unaddressed, it will end. On the other hand as global warming heats the earth, the temperatures of the oceans are increasing too. The Earth is a blue planet - meaning major part of it is covered by water. Thus, the impact on the ocean by global warming changes many environments of the world, directly affecting several industries which we humans heavily rely on. There are many impacts on ocean natural resources from global warming.

The sea level rises when the polar ice melts due to global warming. In addition, in the high tropical temperatures sea water expands, which commonly happens to seas around our island. In Sri Lanka due to sea level rise scientists expect certain spots of the island will be inundated and Islands in the Jaffna peninsula will be totally covered by sea water! The climate change doesn't stop there; it also effects the wave patterns and could raise storms. With the temperature rise, tuna like fish tends to go deeper, making it difficult to catch them. Even this may happen to bill fish commonly known in Sri Lanka as Thalapath. Tuna and bill fish are commonly found 100 - 200 metres deep sea fishermen are aware of this and their techniques, be it old or new, are based on these facts. When the fish goes deeper the fishermen can not catch fish with the available knowledge.

As the temperature in the equatorial region goes higher, the fish most probably will migrate to sub tropical regions, according to scientists. Thus, the fishermen will not be able to find fish in their identified locations and depths. This is a phenomena where the fish harvest will be lowered drastically affecting the fish industry and the community.

Greenhouse

The only way to reduce ocean temperatures is to dramatically reign in our emission of greenhouse gases. However, even if we immediately dropped carbon dioxide emissions to zero, the gasses we've already released would take decades or longer to dissipate. For tens of millions of years, Earth's oceans have maintained a relatively stable acidity level. Carbon dioxide dissolves in sea water and it makes the sea acidic. The Ocean absorbed CO2 from a process that helped it maintain a stable pH (8.179). The oceans currently absorb about a third of human-created CO2 emissions, roughly 22 million tons a day. But as Carbon Dioxide continues to dissolve in sea water and increase in acidity continues the shell forming species, like crabs and lobsters will find it difficult to develop their shells threatening their lives. Even the microscopic crustaceans get affected.

Thus the food chain of many sea species gets affected. This is the food for small fish and the plankton. This would make the ocean species in the upper levels of the food chain to starve. According to the Initial National Communication under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Conventions Sri Lanka will experience sea level rises, high temperatures, more frequent and prolonged droughts, high intensity of rainfalls and increased thunder activity. Above all, it will result in a significant threat to the coastal and marine industry as well as to different sectors of the national economy and human health.

Oil spills is another major disaster the ocean is facing currently. Each barrel of oil equals 42 gallons or 159 liters. The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a tragedy of enormous proportions that will impact communities and be studied by scientists for many years. The greatest impact was on marine species. According to released data the spill area hosted around 8,330 species, including more than 1,200fish, 200 birds, 1,400 molluscs, 1,500 crustaceans, four sea turtles and 29 marine mammals, according to scientific publications. Today as the scientists have found the oil and its chemicals have seeped in to the food chain of the affected sea area. Environmental impacts continue, and research is ongoing.

Ocean environment can be categorised in to three i.e. Coastal zone, Marine environment, Climatology. The Coastal zone includes ecosystems such as mangroves, shallow coral reefs, lagoons and estuaries as well as socio-economic activities that includes tourism related businesses as well as taking sea water for personal usage. The Sri Lankan sea is hyped with maritime activities including ports and harbours, maritime transportation, fisheries and maritime industries, exploration and exploitation of marine and sea bed resources, sports and recreation, hydrographic and oceanographic research activities, submarine cables and under water pipes, defence activities etc.

On an average every day over 160 ships pass through the traffic separation zone located south of head lighthouse in Dondra point. As the present Traffic Separation Zone is located at a sea area highly populated by whales, it will be advisable to take the zone further south in order to protect valuable species.

The Ocean, the continuous body of saline water encircling the world, has given rise to voyages, discoveries, fossil fuels, food and even to tsunamis and storms creating devastation. It fascinated generations of poets, artists, musicians and writers. This great water mass covers almost 75 percent of the earth and is an immense wealth of resources.

As we are all aware the ocean is not merely a large mass of salt water. It is another living world. It is the world that emerged before us the land animals. Life within the ocean evolved three billion years prior to life on land.