People And Their Problems

New Delhi, 14 April 2007

Green Peace Concern

INCREASING THREAT TO OCEANS

By Radhakrishna Rao

The unchecked global warming blamed on the green house gases emission from burning of fossil fuels, could lead to a rise in sea levels by half metre with serious consequences for countries like Bangladesh and many low lying islands including Maldives according to Achim Steiner, the Head of the UN Environment Programme. In addition to global warming, the oceans and seas around the world are threatened by gross human interference into the finely-tuned global environment.

Oceans not only help shape the global climate pattern but also serve as a source of protein-rich food for millions of people in the coastal areas of the world. As such, there is a growing concern over increasing threat to the oceans of the world from a variety of sources. For instance, Aral Sea, considered the fourth largest inland water body in the world, is fast drying up. With the Central Asian Republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhistan making extensive and indiscriminate use of water from rivers, Amu darya and Syr darya that feed the Aral sea, the sea level has dropped by 20 metres since 1960s.

Nearer home, the tsunami of December 2005 had battered the marine environment, seriously affecting the coastal communities in many parts of India. Coral reefs, a significant and vital component of the marine eco system had suffered widespread damages due to tsunami. In fact, an Indian Parliamentary panel on science, technology, environment and forests, has suggested a detailed physical verification of coral reefs to assess accurately the status of their health in the post-tsunami scenario.

The committee felt that for restoration and management of coral health, a more realistic understanding of the ecology of the coral reefs was needed. Indeed, the panel felt that this can be achieved by retrospective analysis, modeling and intensive studies of the ecosystem structure and functioning of the very few isolated reefs that have survive tsunami.

According to marine biologists, coral reefs are one of the most productive and diverse components of the marine-eco-system. This ecologically-significant part of the marine environment supports more than nine million species and provides a livelihood for millions of people around the world.

Over fishing is considered a major threat to the well-being of the eco-systems .Marine scientists warn that at the current rate of the exploitation of seas and ocean for food, all wild seafood could disappear from the world’s menus within five decades from now. A study by a team of researchers has found that with a steep increase in number of commercial fisheries there could be a total eradication of all fish stocks in the world by 2048.

Unless we fundamentally change  the way we manage all the ocean species as working ecosystems, this century could be the last century of the wild sea food, says Steve Palumbi of Stanford University, one of the authors of the study. The researchers also found that 29% of the world’s fishery resources have collapsed and that most vulnerable habitations were those where over-fishing had already led to the extinction of some species.

Clearly, oil spills leaked by tankers criss crossing the oceanic highways of the world, are a major contributor to the process of pollution-affecting oceans and seas. Marine life and fish species are particularly vulnerable to the chemicals in oil spills. It has also been found that oil vapour can cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and lungs of the affected marine life forms. Marine species are also at risk from ingesting oil which can seriously jeopardize their capability to eat or digest food by damaging cells in the intestinal tract.

Similarly, many oceanic creatures suffer from long term reproductive problems when they get exposed to oil spills. Marine animals in Strait of Malacca which witnesses the movement of three million barrels of crude oil per day are at perpetual risk from oil spill pollution. Fish exposed to oil spills suffer from respiratory problems as well as erosion. .Oil spills could also adversely affect the reproductory pattern of many fish varieties large number of salmon eggs killed by Exxon Valdez spill indicates that the effects of oil pollution could be serious and widespread.

According to marine biologists ingestion of oil spills by marine species could result in congestion of lungs, damage to airways, asphyxiation and gastro intestinal ulceration. Further oil spills could also restrict the growth of the affected animals in the oceanic environment.

Significantly, balls of oil and tar have also been found in the throats and stomachs of the dead sea turtles, thereby showing that oil spills are a major threat to marine species. In addition huge quantities of plastic refuses carelessly dumped into the seas and oceans by tourists as well as hotels and other establishments close to the sea shores have proved to be a yet another source of threat to oceanic species.

Similarly, discarded fishing nets continue to cause the death of many fish varities and marine mammals. In one particular case, a dead sperm whale had in its digestive system a huge balloon.  The plastic and garbage kill hundreds of sea turtles each year. Plastics are potentially harmful to the marine organisms.

Explosive algal growth in oceans and seas is also known to cause the death of marine organisms due to the loss of dissolved oxygen. Following depletion of oxygen, many organisms in the oceans die from being unable to breathe properly.

An International NGO (Non-Government Organisation) Greenpeace which has been in the forefront of a campaign to insulate the world’s oceans against pollution, says that UN (United Nations) should protect the world’s oceans from deep sea fishing and pollution in the same way as environmentally sensitive land .A fact-filled report from Greenpeace says that at least 40% of the world’s oceans should be protected as nature’s reserves. Just 0.6% of the oceans are protected reserves at present compared with 12% of the world’s land, says a report from UN.

Heavy metal poisoning too is a cause for concern in so far protecting the oceanic life forms is concerned .Residues of mercury and lead  ingested by marine animals are known to cause  birth defects and also damage their nervous system.

But then oceans are known to posses a tremendous, intrinsic capability for recycling and turn sewage into nutrients. As pointed out by Palumbi, it scrubs toxins out of water and produces food and turn carbon di oxide into a food and oxygen. But then as researchers point out man should use the oceanic resources in a sustainable manner and stop turning oceans into a dump yard of all sorts of “wastes and discards”.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)