Save Our Oceans

 

Oceans has much wider areas compared with the width of lands on earth. Most of earth’s area is dominated by oceans which are also source of life for its living things. Oceans produce abundant natural products that can be consumed by all living things on its planet, mainly for humans whose population increases per decade. The explosion of human population on earth forces people to consume and use the natural resources on earth as much as possible for their needs which are increasingly large, particularly the oceans’ products. Their actions cause the damage of the oceans and also the quality of the oceans on earth decreases rapidly as long as the utilization is still going on with large amount per year. It is time for people to protect the oceans from the wild utilization. Actually, there are many things that people may do to conserve the oceans, but generally the main things to do to save them are such as stop doing overfishing, conserving the coral reefs and reducing water pollution.

The first thing to do to save the oceans is by not doing overfishing. Overfishing is catching fish in a large amount more than people’s need or it can be said as overexploitation. In this condition, the fish will reduce rapidly and become extinct. Nowadays, the need of fish consumption increases sharply both for self-consumption and traded at kind of restaurants. For example of some countries which do overfishing such as China, Japan, Indonesia and United States are the biggest tuna consumption. Pew Charitable Trusts also finds that the way those countries do fishing uses a destructive method and they must take their responsibility. The evidence reveals in 2011, those countries had caught 111,482 tonnes of big eye tuna for sushi and sashimi. This huge amount of tuna will effect the ecosystem in the ocean. It will not be balance if the overfishing cannot be controlled or big eye tunas may get extinct. In this case, it will not be difficult if they just let it breed first after being caught and then replace the demand of market with any other fish. Besides it, shark finning also becomes a major of destruction of the ocean. Shark finning is an action of removing or slicing the sharks’ fins while they are still alive, then throw them  back to the sea. The sharks will absolutely die after some days and it is such as a violent death for them. The demand of sharks’ fins in the market increases drastically by recent years. People use the fins to make a bowl of soup which costs extremely expensive, around $100 per bowl. The asian tradition, such as China, is the most common of sharks’ fins consumption. The wedding tradition which involves a bowl of shark’s fins soup to impress the guests and also the demand of market which provides a shark’s fins soup has a big hand in influencing the shark population in the ocean. Actually, tens of million sharks are slaughtered and then around 8,000 fins are shipped to many restaurants around the world because of the demand of the market. Based on stopsharkfinning.net the population of shark becomes smaller every year because of overfishing and the sharks have no time to breed. They may become extinct if this cruel behaviour cannot be controlled. Then, the way out is by letting the fish breed after they are fished. Also, the amount of fishing must be maintained to balance the ecosystem of the oceans.

 

Then, the next thing to do to save oceans is to protect or conserve the coral reefs. Coral reefs have their own beauty and uniqueness, and also they function to protect small fish from predators. The sea without coral reefs is less attractive because it has no charm to attract people. The beauty of coral reefs is the most valuable mascot. However, nowadays it decreases drastically because of wild fishing done by fishermen. One of the counties that should take a responsibility is Philipine. The evidence states that the fishermen of Philipine use a desctructive method to catch the fish that effects to the coral reefs. Poison fishing is a method that is used to poison fish. When the water is sprayed by poison which contains of chemical, it will effect all coral around it. The poison will damage the coral as it can reach widely area around the reefs depends on the substance they use. Usually, the poison for killing fish is sodium cyanide. In Indonesia, it is also used to make the fish unconscious, and also this poison can damage thousand hectares of coral reefs every year. Then, the other method used to catch fish is by explosive fishing. It is a method used to kill fish by exploding chemicals under the sea. It absolutely damages the coral reefs, the effect of the explosion can make a hole of 5 meters diameter. Although this method can easily catch fish, but not for the coral reefs because they needs 100 years to regenerate again. Then, during the regeneration, the reefs cannot protect the fish from predators and also they cannot produce food for the other living things. In this case, the wild fishing methods must be stopped because it will destruct the future of the oceans. Exploding and poisoning fish may take little time but for the coral reefs to regenerate, they needs long time. Fishing through the right way will save the beauty of the coral reefs. Also arresting the coral predators is obviously helping the coral recover and regenerate the damage.

The last thing to do is by reducing the water pollution of the oceans. The waste such as plastics, oil, industrial waste are the most common waste that pollute the sea. Some careless tourists and factories also have a big hand in polluting the oceans or sometimes the waste is brought by the river and it is delivered to the sea. The reasons of all these are humans’ activities. The oil spills mostly come from the household waste and industry which is brought along a river. The effect of this waste can damage the ecosystem of the sea, it kills fish and causes water pollution. Water produces oxygen, besides the forests. Actually the major oxygen is produced by oceans. When the oceans are polluted by the waste, it cannot produce oxygen in a maximum way and simply, living things cannot survive without healthy oxygen. Then, the other waste that causes water pollution is household activity. One of the most polluted water is in Lebanon. It has been pointed that the beaches in the country are not safe for swimming. Najib Saab states that the pollution is from sewage which is formed by faceal. Then, the sample of water is also taken from Nahr El Kalb, Junieh and Tabarja found out that more than 100 coliform mark considered no longer safe for swimming. It is absolutely in emergency that the water will cause disease for the people who live around it. Also, if the water is polluted, there will be no healthy living things. To save the sea, the people must realize that polluting the beach is a wrong thing which will effect the environment. As all know that beaches or widely known as oceans have many benefits for humans themselves and also the other living things. Oceans give the biggest biodiversity, from the smallest things like planktons to the biggest ones like whales and the beauty of the reefs, plants and also the other exotic sea creatures. Oceans also give food to humans, such as fish, alga and seaweed. When the water is not polluted, it will produce healthy food, but if it is the opposite, the food will be contaminated and result unhealthy food. Thus, the pollution of the oceans must be reduced or removed for the sake of all living things including humans.

Thus, to save our oceans, people should keep or limit their amounts of fishing and give the fish to regenerate again. Besides it, the way they do fishing must use the right method so that the coral reefs stay alive and not destructed, and also people should save the oceans to stay hygienic so that the food produced can be consumed safely. Oceans are home of all living things.