How can you help saving the endangered oceans?

In this article, we will explain why oceans are more than ever threatened by overfishing and plastic pollution, and how can *you* contribute to save them.
📽 At the end of it, a short video will sum up the main information.
📖 You will find an “Ocean and Sea Guide”, to keep always next to you.

The Covid 19 crisis has revealed more clearly than ever our vulnerability and our dependence on the environment. Sustainable development is a necessity for the present itself of the humanity  that will assist by the time – because of climate change – to even more food shortages, epidemics, natural disasters, economic crises and unemployment. As we know it, the next 10 years will be crucial for the life on the planet. 

The good news is that we can rely on a powerful source of commune solutions to overcome these challenges: our one shared ocean. Human health depends on ocean health.

Biggest carbon sink on the planet – ocean absorb more than 90% of excess warming from climate change. But this capacity is today reaching saturation.

Major economic resource, ocean also assures the livelihoods of more than 3 billion people around the world – thanks to fishing, commerce, transport or tourism. And yet, predatory actions to capture these resources are destroying the ocean. 

Today, it’s time to act – Our oceans are at a turning points. Ocean warming, acidification (which occurs when the water’s chemistry is altered), deoxygenation and biodiversity depletion are reaching a point of no return. 

Among all the threats to the marine environment, commercial over-fishing is the most dangerous ones. Global fish population is on the brink of collapse. Oceans might be empty by 2048, since up to five million fishes are killed every single minute in the world. Up to 40% of all marine life caught get thrown right back overboard as “bycatch” (the unwanted fish and other marine creatures trapped by commercial fishing nets during fishing for a different species.)

A FEW NUMBERS

  • Fish population decline since 1970. A few examples:
    Halibut:- 99% — COD: – 86% — Bluefin tuna: – 97% — Haddock: -99%. 
  • Around the world : sharks kill about 10 people per year. We kill 11.000 to 30 000 sharks per hour. Almost half are killed bycatch from commercial fishing fleets. 
    Since 1970; the shark population declined as following:
    Thresher: – 80% — Bull: -86 — Smooth Hammerhead: -86% — Scalloped hammerhead:  -99%.
  • The greatest threat to Whales and dolphins is commercial fishing. Over 300 000  and dolphins are killed every single year as bycatch. At the end of last November 2020: Japan started again wailing hunting.
    Up to 10 000 dolphins are being killed every year bycatch in the West coast of France. (This is one of the main mission of SeaSheperd France). This is 10 times more than dolphins being killed in Taiji, Japan. 
  • 6 or 7 species of sea turtles are either threatened or endangered: Green, loggerhead, kemp’s Ridley, olive Ridley, hawksbill, leatherback, flatback because of fishing.

WHY IS IT SUCH A DRAME? 

But animals really regulate the climate for holding on to carbon. As the trees, marine animals take up carbon, sequester it when they sink to the bottom of the ocean. 

The power of animals moving up and down through the water column in terms of mixing is as great as all the wind, waves, tides and currents in the seas combined. All this churning of the sea, is one of the ways the oceans help absorb heat from the atmosphere. As animals swim through the water column, it creates a powerful down-welling of the warmer surface waters to mix with the colder waters below. 

When dolphins and whales return to the surface to breathe, they fertilize tiny marine plants in the ocean called phytoplankton which every year absorb four times the amount of carbon dioxide than the Amazon rain forest does, and generates up to 85% of the oxygen we breathe. So in a world concerned with carbon and climate change, protecting these animals meant protecting the entire planet. 

WHY ARE MARINE VEGETATION, ALGAE AND CORAL SO IMPORTANT ?

Every year, 25 million acres of forests are lost – the equivalent of 27 sport fields per minute – but bottom trawling wipes out an estimated 3.9 billion acres every year -the equivalent of 4.316 sport fields. We lose a football field of seagrass beds every 30 minutes. 

Per acre, marine plants can store up to 20 times more carbon than forests on land. 93% of all the world’s CO2 is stored in the ocean, with the help of marine vegetation (seagrass beds are storing up to 18% of oceanic carbon) algae, and coral. 

Scientists predicting the loss of 90% of reefs by the year 2050. Fishes are also vital to keep corals alive: when they excrete, that is food for the corals.

What is the difference between Seagrasses & Seaweed : While seagrasses are considered vascular plants and have roots, stems and leaves, seaweed are multi-cellular algae and have little or no vascular tissues.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION FROM NOW?

The prospects for marine recovery, can only happen if very large areas of sea are closed to commercial fishing. 

With over four and half million commercial fishing vessels at sea, it is a problem governments have practically given up on enforcing. It is quite the contrary, since the worldwide fishing subsidies represent $35 000 000 000. This is the same amount we need to combat world hunger! 

30% of our oceans should be protected. Now, 5% of marine areas are protected. But at least 90% of that 5% still allow fishing. At the end: less than 1% of our oceans are regulated.

Since for now, governments are taking no action against this unregulated fishing industry: the only ethical thing you can do is to stop eating fish, or at least, eat less fish!

WHY STOP EATING FISH IS OK FOR YOUR HEALTH?

The aquatic food chains is the most concentrated source of industrial pollutants; the contaminants often outweigh the benefits of the nutrients.
So if you stop eating sea food, you are going to miss out all that toxic heavy metal (Mercury, PCB, heavy antibiotics, etc.)

Why ? Because small bacteria, plankton, are picking up on that heavy metal, and then creatures and fishes eat those.

Fish don’t make the famous « omega-3 fatty acids » !  Its the algae cells that are making it and the fish swallow the algae cells. This is why is emerging a new Wave food concept: « Sea food from sea plants » !

      WHY PLASTIC POLLUTION IS ALSO A VERY IMPORTANT THREAT?

Around 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste are washed into the ocean every year. This is the equivalent of a garbage truckload of plastic dumped into the sea every single minute, joining the over 150 million tons already floating there. This plastic breaks down into smaller pieces know as Microplastics – which now outnumber the stars in the Milky Way galaxy by at least 500 hundred times, since there could be as many as 51 trillion micro-plastic particles in the oceans already.

Lots of the plastic is: plastic fishing nets and gears. 46% of the great pacific garbage patch is discarded nets. The rest is plastic bags, drinking and eating packaging. Long-line fishing sets enough fishing line to wrap around the entire planet 500 times every single day.

The ruinations of the oceanic domain caused by plastic waste can be explained as follows:

  • Plastic threatens the existence of life underwater right from smaller fishes to huge mammals and amphibians in several ways. The consumption of plastic by marine creatures causes severe digestive problems. Around one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed every due to plastic ingestion. Several marine species are on the verge of extinction because of this. 1000 sea turtle die from plastic every year.
  • Plastic waste in the oceans also threatens the life of birds because of ingestion of plastic or because of suffocation, by being tricked by the brighter colors of plastic junk. They also often get caught in the debris and end up dying due to suffocation. 44% of all seabird species, along with cetaceans and sea turtle have been documented to have plastic debris in or even around their bodies. Seabird abundance has declined by about 70% since 1950. 
  • Pollution from plastic waste dumped into the world’s oceans is correlated with ocean acidification. This process reduces water PH levels and vital minerals like calcium carbonate, a key building block for many marine skeletons and shells.

    Increased ocean acidity is also caused by CO2 emissions being absorbed into the sea. Ocean acidity has increased by 26% since 1850, 10 times faster than any period within the last 55 million years. If we do nothing, by 2100, ocean acidity could reach such a level that it would cause lasting damage to coral reefs and marine life more generally. 

NB : Even if not a single gram of, plastic entered the oceans from today, we would still be ripping those ecosystems apart because the biggest issue by far is commercial fishing. 

WHAT ABOUT THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA?

Currently, Mediterranean sea is one of the most plastic-polluted seas at the world scale. 229,000 tonnes of plastic is leaking into the Mediterranean Sea every year, equivalent to over 500 shipping containers each day. Unless significant measures are taken, the main source of the leakage, this will at least double by 2040. 

With 1% of the world’s water, this sea concentrates nearly 10% of the world’s marine biodiversity but contains 7% of the global micro plastics detected so far in marine habitats. There is up to 1 000 000 items / km2 on the sea floor. 

Why the Med sea is a real « plastic trap » ? Because it is a closed basin, with 320 Millions inhabitants, and is also a touristic destination. Not all of the people dispose of their waste properly. So disposable plastic bottle and dishes are left by the roadside, end up in urban water…And the Med sea is the endpoint of large rivers (Rhône, Nile, Po). 

WHAT ABOUT GREECE ?

Greece produces about 700,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year, or about 68 kilos per person. The influx of tourists to the coastal areas of Greece increases waste production by up to 26% during the peak period. Only 8% of plastic waste is recycled, due to low sorting rates, difficulties in recovering plastics from mixed waste streams and limited recycling infrastructure. 

YOU CAN SAY NO TO PLASTIC!

  • For the To go cups: use reusable mugs and cups
  • For Bottled water: use reusable water bottle.
  • Concerning the Packaging: buy items with minimal packaging or no packaging at all.
  • Recycle the plastic you still have or had. A great bulk of the plastic pollution is a result of single-use plastics. Find creative and practical uses for plastic, so that you’ll stop dumping them into the landfill.
  • Concerning the clothing: buy natural materials. Because the synthetic fibers end up in the ocean.
  • Clean Up After Yourself. Leave nothing behind that may pollute the environment. Stop throwing a plastic in the lagoon, in the sea, and even on the roadside.

KEEP HAVING HOPE! 🦭

Marine ecosystem bounce back so quickly if they are allowed to. This is within our grasp. Thanks for joining the movement for the seas. 


A 3 minutes video summing up the article :



Sources

https://www.iucn.org/news/marine-and-polar/202010/over-200000-tonnes-plastic-leaking-mediterranean-each-year-iucn-report
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X20308675?vi%3Dihub
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Ifremer
Environmental Justice Foundation
Greenpeace
Moovies : Seaspiracy / Cowspiracy

To go further :
https://www.greenpeace.fr/5-raisons-dempecher-lextraction-miniere-en-eaux-profondes/?utm_medium=210105_PushInfo_newsletter_44166&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=Instit-Newsletter
https://www.francebleu.fr/culture/patrimoine/video-360-son-3d-immersif-a-bord-de-tara-ocean-au-coeur-des-microplastiques-1592488989
https://www.sustainability-times.com/environmental-protection/mediterranean-medicane-storms-and-the-climate-future/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPllpwMuV9Y