When you think about it, the oceans taking up a large part of our planet are amazing. This is where the tiniest creatures live, but also the largest. It is where every color ever imagined – and probably more besides – can be found. It is mysterious and wondrous, and we have only really just begun to explore it.
Unfortunately, we are also not taking very good care of those waters, even though they are in fact an essential part of our ecosystem. Did you know, for example, that just under half of the world’s population lives within 60 miles of the coast? This is just one of the reasons why we need to look after our oceans; read on to discover many more.
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Employment
It makes sense that if so many people live near the ocean that there will be many jobs depending on it. Just in aquaculture and fisheries alone there are 56 million employees and when you take fishing and fish farming into account, the number rises to 880 million – around 12 percent of the world’s population.
Mass unemployment on this scale, if the oceans were to become unsustainable, would be an economic disaster that would affect everyone, no matter where you live or what your current occupation is. Keeping the oceans clean and healthy, cleaning up oil spills, picking up litter, and so on can prevent this from happening.
Food
We have already seen how many people depend on the oceans to make a living, but do you know why this is? It is to provide food. For around three billion people, fish make up 20 percent of their diet and this is just an average. Perhaps surprisingly, only a few fish species make up the bulk of this food, which is why we have to be so careful of the oceans. If just one or two of those species became extinct (through over-fishing and eating), the food supply chain would be seriously affected.
Energy
As we become more knowing when it comes to using fossil fuels and we learn more about sustainable energy, the ocean once again plays an important part. There are many studies being carried out about just how we can best use the power of the waves, and right now we have offshore wind farms.
The future is certainly renewable energy, but if the oceans are filled with pollution and they start to die, will they be able to help sustain life on earth as we hope? It is unlikely, so we need to ensure they are as healthy as possible.
Climate
We all know that the climate, and climate change specifically, is something that plays an important role in our lives. We know that the situation is on a knife edge, and without the oceans it would be even worse. This is because the ocean is a ‘carbon sink’, meaning it absorbs around 25 percent of all the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If the oceans were not here to do that, the planet’s temperature would rise quickly and to an extent where life was unsustainable.
