The Dying Oceans
Our oceans are dying, you’ve probably heard about that. But what does it actually mean? How can an ocean die? After all, it’s just a bunch of salty water?
Showing you all the ways in which the ocean’s ecosystem is suffering would take way, way too long. And it would be depressing as hell. Because of that, I chose three examples.
Coral reefs here, coral reefs there. You know they’re dying and that it has something to do with rising temperatures. But what exactly is happening?
Corals live in a symbiotic relationship with algae. But if they get stressed, they get rid of the algae which turns them white. That is referred to as “coral bleaching”. That stress can be caused by various things, including a higher temperature than usual. @suesa
The bleaching doesn’t necessarily lead to the coral’s death, it can survive the whole thing. But there is a reason corals usually live in a symbiosis with algae. A coral without algae isn’t healthy and dies a lot easier.
Imagine that happening to a big part of the population. Only a few corals remain. But they’re not all the same species of coral! They’re not necessarily able to reproduce with each other! And a coral’s reproduction is already a tricky thing.
Corals can’t move to find a partner. Instead, a certain event, like a fast increase in temperature, prompts corals of the same species to release their sperm and egg cells at the same time. If there are enough cells in close proximity, they can merge and form a new life.
But the ocean is big and water dilutes everything easily. Not enough corals equal smaller chances of a successful fertilization.
And then, we slowly lose them for good.
Garbage in the ocean kills sea turtles. They get stuck in old fishing nets, accidentally eat plastic bags because they think it’s a jellyfish or suffer in different ways from it. But that’s not all.
Newly hatched baby turtles use the reflection of the moon on the water to find their way to the ocean. Any kind of light source can distract them from their path, lead them further inland and then gets them eaten by predators.
But that’s assuming their mother even managed to lay her eggs!
The beaches used by the turtles are being lost, not just through tourism but also rising sea levels. No place to lay eggs, no baby turtles. And then there are those people who dig up the eggs and eat them.
Another problem is caused by global warming. A turtle’s sex isn’t determined by their chromosomes like it is for humans, it’s determined by the temperature during development. If the temperature is lower, the turtle becomes male. Higher temperatures cause more females to hatch.
A higher overall temperature means fewer males and reduces the gene pool for reproduction.
Last but not least, a virus started causing tumors in sea turtles. That disease is caused fibropapillomatosis. Those who read my post about HPV might remember the human papillomavirus as the culprit in causing cervical cancer. Fibropapillomatosis is similar to that, it’s a herpes virus too.
Miamiensis avidus is a protozoan that usually infects bony fish but recently, it’s infecting sharks and similar animals too. Dozens of dead sharks have stranded in California and even more probably just sank to the ground of the ocean.
Mark Okihiro estimates the toll at more than 1,000 leopard sharks, 200-500 bat rays, hundreds of striped bass, and dozens of smoothhound sharks, halibut, thornback rays, and guitarfish.
- National Geographic
So what does this parasite do?
For the sharks, it probably happens like this: The single-cell organism finds their way into the shark (through the nose for example) and reaches the brain. There it starts eating the brain’s tissue which logically isn’t too healthy for the shark.
It’s unusual for a parasite like that to just switch from infecting one class of hosts to infecting a whole different one. The evolutionary difference between sharks and flounders, for example, is quite big.
But pollution and crowded spaces can lead to this kind of event. And it isn’t yet determined if the progression of this problem can be stopped in the near future.
Sources:
Why Life Is So Tough for Sea Turtles
Mysterious Brain-Eating Shark Killer Identified, Though Questions Remain
Pictures taken from pixabay.com
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I have seen a lot of the issues with sea-turtles as I lived in Florida and there was a string of public hatching events that left many sea-turtles in limbo and killed as they tried to make their way into the ocean.
I was unaware of the temperature requirements for coral and that is alarming as the temperatures of the water is 100% out of whack with what it normally is year to year.
It's very sad to think so much time is spent looking up when most of our answers that we need require us to look down more.
The beaches used by the turtles are being lost, not just through tourism but also rising sea levels. No place to lay eggs, no baby turtles. And then there are those people who dig up the eggs and eat them.
I found this quote from your article really sad and moving because I love turtles and I would be lying if I denied that I shed a tear reading this incredible article
I love the detail in which you go into for this article, a well deserved upvote and follow :) I hope to see more of your articles and maybe even get a follow from you?
You might notice that I don't follow many people to keep my feed from being too cluttered. But thank you for your support :)
That video of the straw embedded a good 4 inches or more into the nose of one of them was horrible and tragic.
For those who haven't seen warning, brace yourselves.
:
I've been returning & declining straws ever since...
I hope this kind of video can be shown on the Empire State Building Light show as well. We don't often see the ill-effects of what we are doing (like throwing trash in the sea). That's why many people don't really care.
That's great. I've been refusing to buy anything that doesn't come in recyclable packaging. Here in the states it is done enough that it makes much difference but I try and I've replied to companies online when they have a 'what can we do to serve you better' section. This kind of thing ought to be more recognized here for being the passive evil it is.
Dear Suesa,
Thank you for taking the time and writing on such an important topic. Most of us do not take action unless our lives are directly affected by the phenomenon. It is so important that each of us makes a change ... even if it would be very small... such as decreasing the plastic bag usage in our everyday life! Recently, the municipality here in Tirana changed the policy of how the plastic bags are distributed in the supermarkets. If you want one, you have to buy it. I was glad to see it. I hope we continue to take measures. Thanks again for touching such an important topic <3
I so admire the countries that are dedicated to making a difference. Australia's offshore preserve and Germany's dedication to recycling (I was there just a few months ago) are programs that I wish the US was more dedicated to enacting.
This is scary stuff. Because we don't see it, we don't think about it. How can we as a species help to combat this? I used to work at a plastics and glass recycling company and the stuff I learnt about the amount of plastic that ends up in the sea is pretty horrendous! Apparently there are areas in the sea that are almost like plastic bottle islands just floating on the top of the water, that is shocking! Plastic bags kill so many sea animals because they think they are food (the bags look pretty similar to jelly fish when bobbing around in the sea). Is recycling the answer? Is education the answer? We should be doing more as a species to address this issue now before it is too late!
Some see it but do not really care. Sad affair.
Us, as humans take way too many things for granted. The extinction rate is incredibly high: 0.01 % of species go extinct every single year. This may not seem like a lot, but let's say there are 8.7 million species on the planet. That would mean 870 species would go extinct in this year alone! This is estimated by experts to be 1000 to 10 000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.Numerous companies only care about making money, and they succeed in doing so, but to the detriment of the environment and ecosystem.
This is why I admire so much Elon Musk. He is one of the only filthy rich people who deserves every single penny of what he owns. He creates luxurious electric cars for people to drive, helping humans transition from fossil fuel energy to a more eco-friendly source of energy, electricity. His other company, SolarCity, also helps with this transition to newer energy. He created two companies that not only solve problems that us, humans, have but also those of the animals. This is why so many people, including me, look up to this man.
Also, never knew a turtle's sex was determined by the temperature...interesting. Really enjoyed reading this article Suesa :D I'll definitely drop you a follow and check out your content in the future :P
I've always been a big fan of the oceans. That's why I've been always worried about them.
One thing I've felt sad about has been how people are talking about greenhouse gas emissions so much, they think it as the only thing regarding environmental friendliness. We've seen people talking about how issue X affects the CO2 emissions, but won't care at all about the freaking huge amounts of plastic in the oceans or the coral reefs dying.
I'm happy there are quite many great projects aiming to remove loads of plastic from the oceans.
Nature don't need us, we need nature. But the way mankind is killing what we need is simply astonishing. The day I was opportuned to see what oil spillage did to a one time great ecosystem with fishes flourishing formerly there. It was just a skeleton of its former self. It'd take years and millions of dollars to clean; of which no one is going to do that. It is sad to see the level of abuse the environment had to take at times. Muchas gracias.
An interesting topic. We have long been afraid of the climate change that is occurring due to global warming and greenhouse effect is one of the causes. Unfortunately, people in developed countries are not all aware of this. They continue to compete using technological advances that have a negative impact on the world's climate. Friends in developed countries with a rapid industry also do not think to plant trees at least one tree to support or provide adequate oxygen in their population. They expect a lot of forests in the third world, which is still very important to boost development.
On the other hand, the attitude of tycoons in international countries that are continuously creating gigantic projects to enrich themselves is also thought to often contribute to industrial and industrial waste, both in our air, land, and our oceans. As a result many animals and fish die, their habitats are disturbed, and we realize it only when money is not able to buy everything.