Ocean Ecology

"Sooner or later, we will have to recognise that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans." - Evo Morales

Since the ocean covers 71% of Earth's surface, it's only reasonable that the marine ecosystem is one of the biggest ecosystem in the world. It's also one of the most diversify ecosystem, with coral reefs capable of having more than 1000 species per square meter. However, in recent years, we human have been destroying the ocean ecosystem and making many ocean species gone extinct. This act needs to stop or else the biggest ecosystem in the world is going to be destroyed.

Why do we need to preserve the ocean ecosystem? First of all, the ocean contains many mysteries still remained undiscovered. Even with the knowledge and technology we have now, humans have only discovered 5% of the entire ocean. Some scientists said that we know more about space than we know about Earth's ocean. The estimated number of species in the ocean is about 1 million. Of all that, we've only discovered about 226,000 species. This means that there are still hundreds of thousands of species left out there still waiting for us to discover. This means that ocean legend like the Kraken might actually exist, we just haven't found it yet :). But if we humans destroys the ocean ecosystem, those mysterious and possibly out of this world creatures would have gone before we get a chance to discover them.

Second, the ocean ecosystem is a huge source for fisheries. Every year, in the US alone, ocean fisheries provides 1.2 million jobs, 38 million dollar worth of income, and 140 million dollar worth of sales. Not to mention, the ocean is a huge source of food. From fishes, shrimps, scallops, caviar, to those huge and deluxe lobsters, the ocean have given us many raw materials used to create millions of delicacies. So if we destroy the ocean ecosystem, we also destroy a huge source of income for any country in the world, not to mention removed millions of delicious dishes from our menu.

What have human done to the ocean ecosystem? If you Google human's affect on the ocean, there will be a huge list of many different horrible acts that we human have commited to the ocean. From over-fisheries, pollution, eutrophication, to introduce new species, ocean acidification, and climate change, because of our acts, 39% of marine wildlife is gone, and 30-35% of ocean ecosystems world wide is gone.

So if you're reading this, I sincerely hope that you will spread the information to everyone you know about this problem so everyone can be aware of the harmful effects that we're doing to the ocean. If many people understands the important of ocean, hopefully, in the future, ocean ecosystem will be protect.