Why help the ocean?

Why Help The Ocean?

I am sure you have heard stories about how important it is to help the ocean, but not many people know how much the ocean is suffering. Humans kill millions of marine life each year due to industrial fishing, shark finning and killing, and plastic waste. According to Montgomery Herald, the marine life population is half of what it was in the 1970s. This means if humans continue their actions, the oceans will collapse, which will cause us to become extinct. 

Plastic currently fills up our ocean. According to Plastic Pollution, 8 million metric tons of plastic are put into the ocean each year. This is a huge problem because there are already 150 million tons that are in the ocean. Marine life can easily mistake plastic for food or they can get caught in it. According to Conserve Turtles, over a million Dolphins, turtles, fish, sharks, birds, and many other marine animals die each year due to only plastic debris. Plastic debris also breaks down into microplastics. Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than 5 mm in length. Some microplastic is smaller than the eye can see and it is very hard to get them out of the ocean once they are broken down. According to Quartz, “People across the world unwittingly consume roughly 5 grams of plastic each week in the course of daily life, or about the weight of a credit card…” The majority of the plastic that we consume is microplastics. Microplastics are in our waterways and our food. It is our job to limit our plastic intake so that we can keep Earth alive.

Overfishing is also very unsustainable for the ocean. According to Oceana, 40 percent of the world’s catch is bycatch. Bycatch is unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for different species. This means that close to half of the animals caught by industrial fishing are caught for no reason. According to World Wild Life, 300,000 marine animals are killed by bycatch each year. It is hard for animals to be able to reproduce fast enough which is causing the number of endangered marine life species to rise. The number of marine animals that industrial fishing companies kill is very unsustainable. If we let them continue, we will see effects in our lives in the next 10 years. We must realize how many innocent animals are killed for no cause. 

Many people think that sharks are dangerous and scary but they have one of the most important roles in the ocean. According to The Inertia,” It averages out to two to three sharks killed every second, over 11,000 every hour, over a hundred million every year.” (USA Today). If this continues, Sharks will not be able to reproduce fast enough and will become extinct. If the sharks become extinct then their prey (fish) will overpopulate. Due to the high number of fish, the fish will eat all of their food and the fish’s food will become extinct. Then the fish will starve because their food is gone and the whole ocean ecosystem with collapse. 

You may think, ‘Well if the ocean died, it would not affect me,’. If the whole ocean died, we would be right behind them. According to National Ocean Service, “...50-80% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean.” The ocean supplies most of the oxygen we breathe. We simply would not be able to survive without the Ocean. 

Overall, as humans, we kill millions of marine life. Overfishing, plastic use, and killing sharks are all pathways to the ecosystem of the ocean collapsing. The world needs to become more aware of how severe this problem is and why and how it will affect us. Without the ocean, we would not be here.