The Importance of Preserving the Health and Diversity of the World's Oceans

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The Importance of Preserving the Health and Diversity of the World's Oceans

Our oceans are the most productive and more than likely the most helpful environment on the planet today. Oceans not only supply our ozone with life supporting oxygen, control the earth’s weather patterns, it also is home to over a million different species ranging from mammals, invertebrates, to microscopic plankton. The ocean is a very diverse environment and it is very important to keep the ocean and all off its creatures alive and healthy. There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is that what we do in our waters will directly effect the way we live.

So lets start by taking a look at where we a get a major percentage of our food today. The oceans are being over fished and fish populations are dwindling more rapidly than ever. Many people don’t understand the various consequences of this horrible dilemma which we face daily. The reasoning is that killing off the fish doesn’t only effect fish but everything dependent on fish, such as humans, sharks, mammals and other types of fish. You can further understand this if you took a look at a food chain. Every creature is a link you remove one the chain is weak, and susceptible not to function properly.

Oil spills and pollution can be the cause of death too much of the local marine life. An oil slick can cover up to 50 square miles polluting, and damaging all the ecosystems in which the marine life thrives killing thousands. All over the ocean surface and all over the land near the spill will be contaminated with crude oil ruin the lives of many of the animals near or who feed of the animals who were less fortunate not to make it out of the spill un effected.

Even though oil spills are not an every day ordeal, the seepage of toxic chemicals and waste filtrates into our ocean with devastating results. When fish swim through chemicals their bodies don’t repel them but rather absorb them contaminating them, making them a lethal weapon to humankind. If these fish were to get caught and sold at the market, anyone who bought and ate the fish could be in terrible danger of consuming toxic chemicals. But not all contaminated fish are caught. Some die shortly after contamination, and other drudge out the rest of their short lives in agony and possibility of infecting others of its kinds.

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