The future of the oceans

The future of the oceans

The future of the oceans. The oceans are changing for the worse. Humans affect most, if not all of the change. We manage to dump about 5 to 13 million tonnes of plastic in the ocean each year. Over 2,000 species are listed as endangered or threatened.

The oceans buffer CO2 in the atmosphere in the form of carbonic acid, making the ocean more acidic. Ocean acidification exacerbates the effects of heat on corals, which has in itself led to 70% corals around the globe being partly bleached.

What does that mean for you, your freediving, and for the world in general? Can we undo some of this damage? Or are we doomed to be freediving in a plastic soup without any life a mere few decades from now?

Image by joelsaucedosaucedo from Pixabay

Plastic

Plastic is miraculous material. It is resistant to degradation, cheap, easy to produce in any shape, and abundant. Exactly these qualities are why it is difficult to stop our dependency on it. Unfortunately, it is also difficult to effectively recycle in many parts of the world.

A lot of plastic ends up in the ocean. So much of it, in fact, that if we don’t change our collective behaviour the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050. With the scale of the plastic problem now visible for everyone to see, our attitudes are slowly changing. More developed countries are adopting better recycling policies and trying to reduce the dependency and use of plastic. Less developed countries will slowly follow suit.

Large initiatives that give us hope:

  • The Ocean Cleanup project aims to build platforms that collect plastic using wind and ocean currents. The organization has recently launched a full-scale prototype that uses currents and winds to capture large pieces of plastic. Hopefully, the prototype is successful and we will see full scale deployment in the near future.
  • Aqua drones such as the Wasteshark collect debris in rivers and water channels, catching plastic before it ends up in the ocean. If this drone is made to be fully autonomous, it can be deployed in the rivers bringing in most of the pollution. An estimated 80% of marine plastics come from just a few rivers world-wide. The Yangtze, Indus, and Yellow River are the top culprits.

Bio-diversity

Biodiversity is literally the variety of life. The massive explosion of our population has largely crowded out other species, both above and underwater. Biodiversity reduces because of competition for food, habitat changes, and hunting.

Recent studies have shown that the biomass of humans and farm animals far exceed that of wild terrestrial mammals. Unfortunately, marine biomass has likewise reduced.

UNESCO states that “By the year 2100, without significant changes, more than half of the world’s marine species may stand on the brink of extinction.”

The Yellow River mentioned previously is estimated to have lost 30% of its fish species. It is also where the first dolphin species has gone extinct as a result of human activity.

An example close to home

When ocean conditions change, the most specialized creatures usually have a hard time coping.

In British Columbia, this is clearly evident in a population of local orcas, known as the Southern Residents. The Southern Residents, a clan of 73 orcas, are strained to survive in our local waters. Some reasons for this:

  • The Southern Resident’s main food source, Chinook Salmon, has declined due to overfishing and aquaculture.
  • The Orcas contain a lot of toxins that interact with their reproduction and viability. These toxins are bio-accumulated mostly in their fat reserves. Notable ones are the pesticide DDT, the coolant PCB and the flame retardant PBDE.
  • Increased boat traffic interrupts foraging behaviours and impedes the Orca’s communication. The Southern Residents are just one local example of a group of mammals that may not exist anymore in a few decades, however many species face similar threats. We depend on many of them for eco-tourism and food.
Image by skeeze from Pixabay

Coral reefs are dying

The statistics are grim.

70% of the coral reefs are threatened. 20% permanently destroyed. The worst coral bleaching years on record 2014 – 2017 damaged 70% of the world’s reefs.

Local diseases also play a part, stony coral tissue loss disease has now spread from Florida to the Caribbean. Tropical reefs account for only a small portion of the earth’s surface, but have the highest biodiversity. With more than half of the corals around the globe in dire condition, many conservationists are trying to do preserve a small part of them. Scientists have identified heat-resistant corals and are trying their best to transplant and grow them so they can be planted on degraded reef sides.

A technique called micro-fragmentation now allows us to grow corals ten times faster than a few years ago. Off-shore coral nurseries now grow thousands of corals every year. However, the lack of awareness of many boaters still leads to anchor chains destroying corals. As global temperatures continue to rise, more bleaching is undoubtedly on its way.

Image by Mika Nga from Pixabay

The ocean will continue to change

The change we dread has been set in motion long ago, and there is no doubt that the oceans of the future will not be those of the past. In order to preserve an ocean full of life we need to change our collective behaviour, from individual recycling to international policies and ‘green’ business incentives. With the right stewardship the oceans of the future may still nourish abundant life, including ours.

Jaap

Jaap is a geologist by trade and a freediver by passion. Jaap wrote the book Longer and Deeper in 2018. His book teaches how to train for freediving and spearfishing on land.

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