Hadi Eck
Ocean Climate Change Issues
When I think about the effects for global warming I think the idea that most people think about is what its doing to the climate. Not the other issues at hand, whether it be the melting of the ice caps or how it affects ecosystems. An important issue that I think really matters that other people don’t understand is what affect does climate change have on the oceans. The world is covered in about 70% water and climate change must have a large impact on the ocean in someway. I think the ocean is one of the most important ecosystems that needs to be addressed and conserved. We live in a world that exploits natural resources at a tremendous rate and the ocean being one of the largest of that. From overfishing
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Society already has a problem with over fishing that greatly changes the ecosystem of the ocean. The oceans have depleted a large amount of fish which is significantly caused by this. With climate change it has greatly reduced the habitat of these creatures. According to an article “Loss of oxygen in the oceans is one of the serious side effects of a warming atmosphere, and a major threat to marine life” (Ayush 2016). I believe that this is a huge problem that many citizens or nations are not aware of. The ocean is home to a diverse amount of life that lives in a balanced system. Humans are known for changing their environment and the ocean is one of the environments that has been greatly altered. According to one of our books “If these preliminary research results are correct, increasing ocean acidity could disrupt ocean food webs and global food supplies” (Miller & Spoolman 2011). I think society needs to focus more on regulating issues at hand. There’s only increasing information to back climate change and more information is being released on daily …show more content…
The fishing industry is a large market, its one of the largest food sources. Since the ocean is already being depleted at a fast pace its daunting to think about what that means for the economy. Millions of people will lose jobs and push people into poverty. The human population is growing at tremendous rate, which will only increase the need for more sustainable regulations and sources of food. ”63 percent of global fish stocks are now considered overfished. 40,000 jobs were lost with the collapse of just one overfished cod population” (“Overfishing” 2016). With the growing amount of people and decrease in food supply it seems like society is headed for a downfall. I find it hard to imagine a way of reducing this problem. Sure there is stronger regulations that can enforced but there will always be people who break the rules and are only concerned about there own
Modern fishing methods have first and foremost created serious problems for ocean ecosystems. Scholastic Scope states, “The populations of almost all fish species that we eat have shrunken, some drastically, as a result of overfishing, or catching fish faster than they can reproduce” (Dignan 14). Sadly, fish cannot reproduce fast enough to sustain their populations when different fishing techniques drain their ecosystem’s health. Because humans are relatively new organisms, fish, a much older species, have not adapted to modern fishing techniques and overfishing in the sea. Therefore, oceans are at risk because fish cannot compete with newer, more efficient fishing techniques produced by humans. Climate change is furthermore another major threat to oceans. As published by Scholastic Scope, “Warming ocean waters, rising sea levels, and violent storms disrupt the lives of many species and affect fragile marine ecosystems” (Dignan 14). Although climate change may now be a controversial issue, its footprint and effects have no doubt left their mark. Powerful and destructive climate change has also been the culprit of extinction for many other animals such as the marine animals during the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Since things often repeat itself in history, the ocean could have a Holocene extinction event, which would completely
The earliest accounts of overfishing occurred in the 1800s, when the demand of whale blubber nearly wiped out the whale populations. In the mid 1900s, the harvesting of Atlantic cod, herring, and California sardines drove them to the brink of extinction. These high disruptions cause regional depletions of animal resources which is starting to cause a global problem. There has never been a more urgent time for fishing nations to make a commitment towards the sustainability of our oceans. More than 80% of the world’s fisheries have been, or are being pushed beyond their limits and are in dire need of strict management plans. Populations of fish and elasmobranch fish such as tuna, grouper and sharks have been declining to the point where the survival
Global warming is affecting oceans and seas, they temperature is increasing and is becoming higher the concentrations of carbon dioxide, making the oceans more acidic, Is impacting the coral reefs, the are at risk, there are dying, and important fact is that in 2050 is the global warming remain, the coral will die, including the animals that live in there. The oceans and seas are becoming worst, animals are dying for temperature or by the contamination that humans produce. Contamination effect to Global warming. The temperatures are becoming worse every year.
Over the years, climate change has affected marine species because it has increased the ocean temperature, causing it to get warmer, which is causing a negative impact to most marine organisms like echinoderms and cnidarians (Quinn, 2016). In many cases, the optimum temperature of growth increased 1-6°C, which created harmful effects on stages of development (Quinn, 2016). In some cases such as the American lobster (Homarus americanus), warming of the ocean had caused smaller body sizes (Le Bris et al., 2016). Even though there is some research that showed that the warm temperature could also benefit the lobster’s population, most of their population has declined in the warmest and southernmost regions of the lobster’s range in places like southern New England and Long Island Sound (Quinn, 2016).
According to a study done by Living Planet Report in 2015, 29% of the world’s fishing stocks are considered overfished and an additional 61% is fully exploited with no possibility to produce more fish. Our environment is currently afflicted by a number of different problems, one of which is overfishing. Overfishing is defined by FishOnline as, “Fishing with a sufficiently high intensity to reduce the breeding stock levels to such an extent that they will no longer support a sufficient quantity of fish for sport or commercial harvest.” The overfishing situation is being exacerbated by non-sustainable and destructive fishing practices and unfair fisheries partnership agreements; while there are currently attempts being made at fixing these problems and their effects on overfishing, nothing has been extremely effective.
Fishing is a great hobby for the “average Joe.” People fish for fun, family bonding, and to make a living. Overfishing, defined as excessive fishing to an extent, damages local ecology. “Overfishing.org”, found at, http://overfishing.org/pages/what_is_overfishing.php, states, “Catching too many fish; fishing so much that the fish cannot sustain their population”. This means that too many fish are taken out of the water too quickly causing a low population count. People who are overfishing oceans, lakes, rivers, etc. are affecting local biological organism and humankind itself. Humans constantly fishing these bodies of water affect the whole food chain. In a few years, your favorite fish may not exist. World powers, such as the United States
One of the most practical ways is to set up regulations that are enforced and therefore followed. Fishing companies should have a limit as to how many fish can be caught, and the fish stocks should also be given adequate time to grow. This would help them recover. If we regulated how much fish could be caught, it would give the fish time to recover and become numerous once again. The regulations should be reasonable and not as outrageous as that fishermen can’t fish, but laws that truly help the fish prosper. Another way would be to have certain zones in the ocean that are specifically off limits to fishing. If we made these zones unreachable for at least a few years, they should be phenomenally full of fish by the time we’re ready to
Earth's oceans are dying. “About 80% of the ocean around the world is polluted with chemicals industrial and residential waste, all of which comes from the land” (“Marine Problems…”). Pollution is mainly coming from the people. Marine pollution should be stopped because it is the cause of many problems and if something is done about it, people will see an increase in sea life and healthier waters. It makes its way into the ocean and kills marine life. Ocean pollution is affecting the way of fisherman and their everyday lives. It is also very bad on the community because pollution is very bad on tourism. Ocean pollution should be stopped because it is poorly affecting marine life, it is not good for fishermen, and is very bad on tourism.
It was Mihaljo Mesarovic, the author of “Mankind at the Turning Point”, who once said “The Earth has cancer and the cancer is man”. He was definitely onto something. In fact, humans have had a major negative impact on the world’s marine environment. Throughout recent human history, it has been obvious that the wellbeing of the marine environment has been in jeopardy. Pollution of the ocean, overfishing and the greenhouse gases these are all the aspects that can cause the destroying of the precious environments, such as reefs, sea-grass and coastal habitats. According to the essay and interview “Seafarming at the End of the World”, written by Peter Meehan, he presents the fact that human impact on the ocean is the main reason that causes the awful situation of marine ecosystem and organisms.
It’s instinctive for people to want to conserve and protect the earth. People are beginning to care more about our earth and what our actions create. People who live off the sea or depend on fish for survival are aware of overfishing. They can’t help but be affected. They know it’s becoming a larger problem now than in the past. People want to preserve nature, and see all wildlife thrive. That’s why there are some regulations about what species can and cannot be fished. Fish hatcheries are asked to only produce a certain amount of fish. Certain parts of the ocean cannot be fished, while some species are illegal to catch and keep. Some parts of the world even regulate which days fishing is allowed. Rules such as these protect fish, and I believe they will get more and more common as time progresses and the world population increases. We’re taking responsibility, and moving towards correcting our error. The world is not as heartless as Home made us
Now that we are aware that global warming is influencing our world’s oceans, we must look at the affects that it is having. I did not find any positive affects of global warming on the oceans. It is sad to say, but I was left with only the negative. One of the effects that warmer temperatures have on the oceans is that they disrupt the ocean circulation rate (Pearce, 1996). As I previously mentioned, oceans must maintain all of its characteristics properly. Warmer temperatures in the atmosphere affect circulation rates in the oceans. If circulation rates in the oceans are altered, then everything in the oceanic environment becomes changed. The oceanic currents become affected, as well.
In order for there to be plenty of fish in the years ahead, fisheries will have to develop sustainable fisheries and some will have to close. Due to the constant increase in the human population, the oceans have been overfished with a resulting decline of fish crucial to the economy and communities of the world. The control of the world's fisheries is a controversial subject, as they cannot produce enough to satisfy the demand, especially when there aren't enough fish left to breed in healthy ecosystems. Scientists are often in the role of fisheries managers and must regulate the amount of fishing in the oceans, a position not popular with those who have to make a living fishing ever decreasing populations.
One of the most serious effects of global warming, as it continues to intensify, is the increase in the ocean levels. Thermal expansion of the ocean and glacial melting are likely to cause a .5 to 1.5 meter rise in the ocean level by the year 2100. As the ocean level rises and if no protection is provided, many freshwater supplies could be jeopardized. Tens and possibly hundreds of millions of
One solution is to set strict limits to how much fish commercial fishermen can take from the oceans. The limits would be determined by yearly evaluations, and studies of the population of harvestable fish(Koster, 2016). There are already many limits on the amount of fish that can be harvested by fishermen but they are not well enforced or punished. Another solution would be to crack down of fishing boats, and check how much of each fish they have caught. If the fishermen have exceeded their limit the punishment would be much greater than it is now to scare them into not taking more fish than they are aloud(Koster,
The earth is a beautiful and extraordinary planet, but are we treating it right? For the past 20 decades, temperatures have been rising along with hundreds of factors contributing to it. Climate change concerns the public as they wonder if its occurring, how much has occurred in the modern era, what has caused it, what the effects will be if we don’t do anything about it and much more. Many people and scientist agree that mankind is the number one cause of climate change. Humans have influenced this by greenhouse gases, methane nitrous oxide.