by AJ McCreary, PICurrent Assistant Producer
Courtesy of the World Resources Institute
When thinking about living green and making better decisions about how we choose to live, we often need to look at our individual impact on the world we live in.
One extremely important part of our world is our oceans. Our oceans make up 71% of the earths surface, and contains 99% of the earths living species. While we rely on our oceans for food, transportation, and water, the oceans rely on beautiful and complicated ecosystems called coral reefs. In addition to housing millions of species, coral reefs play an important part in filtering the ocean and helping it work as a whole.
In the most recent ocean news, researches found 274 new aquatic species in the coastal region off of Australia. This is not only exciting, but is leading to more deep ocean exploration.
But our coral reefs are in grave danger from:
- over fishing
- coastal development
- runoff of fertilizers and other chemicals from the land
- tourism impacts
In addition to localized problems, the ocean also is being affected by greenhouse gasses, meaning:
- warmer seas stress coral, making them bleach (expelling the algae they live off of) and die. The rise in temperatures affects the survival of all sea life.
- acidifying seas: meaning the decrease in pH in the ocean, and severely affecting marine reproductivity.
It is easy to overlook the issues of the ocean, many people think “What can I do? I am just one individual. I don’t even live near an ocean.” but this is an important issue because if the ocean dies, we all will die.
There are a variety of things that we all can do to help our coral reefs and ocean populations:
- stop using pesticides and fertilizers on your lawns and gardens
- participate in a beach clean up
- avoid eating over fished fish
- conserve water
- reduce waste and household pollution
- reduce you vehicle use
- recycle rather than throwing away goods
Additional ideas can be found at Conservation Magazine.
Even the smallest act will make a difference.
For more information:
Ocean Facts
A list of fish to avoid eating
Deep Sea News
