The Sun Sets on Our Urgent and Collective Efforts to Save our Oceans and Protect Marine Life Worldwide

Let's recommit now to sustainably manage our world's ocean’s precious resources

Critical action is needed now to restore and protect the earth's oceans!

A powerful video was shown echoing the theme, awaken new depths, warning of immediate protection needs and cautioning that there is no time for an “out of sight out of mind” sense of complacency.

In a statement marking the Day – which falls officially on Saturday - UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the ocean sustains life on Earth and the problems are essentially man-made.

“Climate change is triggering rising seas and threatening the very existence of small island developing states and coastal populations”, he said.

Mr. Guterres also mentioned that ocean acidification is destroying coral reefs, with sea temperatures reaching record levels leading to extreme weather events.  Overfishing and other factors are contributing to the destruction of the world’s marine ecosystems.

The President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis, attended the event and voiced similar concerns about the current state of the ocean.

“There is so much still to learn about oceans – and, importantly, to reverse the damage being caused to our precious lifeline resource.”

Mr. Francis said that the ocean is our strongest ally against climate change and therefore “it is our joint responsibility to course correct – and recommit to sustainably manage the ocean’s precious resources - so as to ensure their availability intergenerationally.”

The Secretary-General and General Assembly President said they are expecting reflections on and actions toward ways to restore and protect our oceans as the Summit of the Future in September 2024 and next year’s UN Oceans Conference approach.

State of the Ocean Report

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a State of the Ocean report earlier in the week pushing policymakers to think about “the ocean we need for the future we want.”

The report detailed threats to the ocean and trends that could help identify drivers of change.

It warned that the rate of ocean warming has doubled in 20 years and that coastal species are suffocating due to decreased oxygen levels in the ocean, among other things.

One of its conclusions is that “ocean literacy practice and research is a strategic ally to optimize resources, accelerate behavioural change and improve the implementation of ocean conservation programmes and sustainability practices.”

Calls to action

Speakers at UN Headquarters on Friday included marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle, who said finding ways to share the importance of protecting our ocean with the world can lead to vital action to also preserve coastal wildlife.

“Now is the time for governments, businesses, investors, scientists and communities to come together in defence of our ocean,” UN Secretary-General Guterres said.

In a similar call to action, General Assembly President Francis said we should “redouble our efforts to support and advance ocean action, build much-needed capacity in [small island developing states] and other developing countries – and promote innovative financing solutions that drive transformation and scale up resilience.”

Source

Disappearing reefs threaten marine life

tribune242/editorial:



WE WANT to thank our loyal readers who from time to time send us news item they think might interest us, but which we might have missed.

In the past week we have received information picked up on the BBC about the lack of needed knowledge in the Caribbean about the warning signs of an approaching tsunami, and information from London's Mail Online about disappearing coral reefs.

The Mail article by David Derbyshire in San Diego reports scientists as predicting that the rising acid levels in the "seas and the warmer ocean temperatures are wiping out the spectacular reefs enjoyed by millions of divers, tourists and wildlife lovers.

"The destruction would also be a disaster for tropical fish and marine life which use coral reefs as nurseries and feeding grounds," Mr Derbyshire wrote.

Dr Jacob Silverman from the Carnegie Institution in Washington, was quoted as saying that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were making seas more acidic.

And so, although scientists are disputing whether global man-caused greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is warming the climate, there now is evidence that it is certainly warming our seas, creating more acid, which in turn is breaking up subterranean coral.

Dr Silverman's studies have led him to believe that reefs stop growing and start breaking up when the amount of greenhouse gas reaches twice its pre-industrial level.

He predicted that if present trends continue this could happen by the end of the century.

"These ecosystems, which harbour the highest diversity of marine life in the oceans, may be severely reduced within less than 100 years," he said.

Dr Silverman told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego that reef-building corals are highly sensitive to the acidity and temperature of the seawater in which they grow.

To illustrate the article a dramatic photograph was shown of a mass of dead coral, bleached white. The photo was taken at Australia's Great Barrier Reef, known for its abundant marine life. Scientists believe that rising levels of acid in the sea will kill these reefs within a century.

If man does nothing to reverse this trend, and if it continues at the present rate, another source of man's food will disappear. Recently, there was the bee scare. Scientists were alarmed at the rapidly decreasing colony of bees. Without them there would be no pollination, and without pollination man's food chain would collapse.

Recently, we saw a scientist showing a Bahamian farmer how to care for tomato plants. He told him that every day he should stop at each plant and gently agitate the branch with a flick of the finger. We asked why. "Pollination," he replied, "we have to do the work of the bees, when there are no bees."

And so man's fish supply is being threatened, his meat supply is threatened -- no feed for the animals -- and his plant supply is threatened, while man still debates whether it's necessary to reduce industrial carbon-dioxide emissions. So whichever way we approach the problem, man is digging his own grave. And don't forget, the homes of Bahamians sit atop coral reefs.

And now for the lack of knowledge in the Caribbean to recognise an approaching tsunami.

Dr Hermann Fritz, a civil engineering professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and four Haitian colleagues travelled around the coast of Haiti gathering information about a tsunami that was triggered by the 7.0 Port-au-Prince earthquake.

"This was a relatively small event," Dr Fritz told BBC News. "Most of the fatalities were due to the earthquake, but at least three victims we know of survived the earthquake and were hit by the wave."

These three victims were a father and his two young sons. They were standing close to the shore in Petit Paradis, watching the wave instead of heading for higher ground.

"And on the border [with the Dominican Republic], fishermen were taking photos and videos of the draw-down of the sea," he said.

This ominous draw-back in the water level is a classic sign that a big wave is approaching.

"It demonstrated a lack of [tsunami] education," Dr Fritz said. "It was pure luck that the misinformation did not kill more people in this case."

And on Saturday before the all-clear was called on the tsunami watch in Hawaii -- the result of the Chile earthquake -- a CNN announcer reporting from high ground drew viewers attention to a lone figure on the beach below watching as the ocean sucked the sea from the beach. He was obviously a tourist unaware that this was the first sign of an approaching tsunami.

Instead of fleeing for high ground, he stood and watched.


March 01, 2010


tribune242

Bahamas Blog International