Northern Sea Lion caught in an old net. This seal was saved by members of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory

White sided Dolphin drowned in a driftnet. Driftnets were banned by the United Nations in 1993

In the words of President Clinton;
   "I invite all Americans to take this opportunity to  learn more about the ocean and its vast biodiversity and to become involved in keeping our coastal waters safe and clean." Read  "Year Of The Ocean - A Proclimation", 1998 By President Bill Clinton.

Major Threats To The Ocean

Our oceans and the marine environment are being threatened by global warming, over fishing and pollution, which destroys habitat and kills sea life.

"The sea is the universal sewer"
Jacques Coustea

Global Warming

The ocean plays an important part in regulating the planet's climate and weather. Global warming has caused melting of the polar ice caps, which results in rising sea levels. Changes to the oceans temperature could result in changes to major ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream, and effect the weather of entire continents. Some scientists believe that "EL Nino" is directly related to global warming. "El Nino"has had devastating effects this year on parts of the west and Midwest, causing torrential rains and flooding. Tropical fish species are making the Mediterranean Sea their permanent home due to a rise in water temperature of about 2 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 30 years. These warm water species are displacing indigenous fish that have been weakened by over fishing and environmental changes. There have been reports of warm water fish taking over the of native species habitat in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, as well. The migration of these tropical fish is an indication of climate changes directly related to global warming.

Over Fishing

Fish is the major source of protein for much of the world's population.In 1996, commercial fisherman in the United  States, harvested 96 billion pounds of sea life  from the ocean. It is estimated that U. S. residents ate an average of 15 pounds each, of seafood last year. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization believes that all the world's major fishing areas are in serious decline and reproduction cannot keep up. In the United States over fished species include Haddock, Cod and Red Snapper. In 1992 50,000 people were put out of work when Canada closed it's Cod fisheries, a natural resource once thought to be inexhaustible. Unfortunately, the fisheries off the New England Coast seem to be headed for the same fate. It has estimated that 47% of that area's fishing industry to be out of work in the next few years. One of the most disturbing factors that lead to the decimation of fish species, is the practice of discarding non-target fish that are caught in nets or by shrimp crawlers. These "waste fish' are dumped back into the ocean either dead or dying. In the United States 20 billion pounds of these unwanted fish are discarded annually.

Pollution

"It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself." Rachael Carson from The Sea Around Us

The sources of pollution to the oceans include, agricultural runoff, sewage and even, nuclear waste. Air pollution makes up one third of the toxic substances that enter the ocean. The sources that contribute to air pollution are cars, power plants and industries. These pollutants are released into the atmosphere and are then washed into Ocean by rain storms. Oil from cars is eventually washed into the ocean, as are pesticides, fertilizers and other industrial chemicals. Any substance dumped into storm drains will eventually end up in the ocean. According to Ocean Futures there are: 47,500 steel barrels containing plutonium, cessium, and mercury that are scattered over 350 square miles of the ocean floor thirty miles west of San Francisco.

Each American city of 5 million people creates approximately 11 million gallons of oil pollution each year, about the same as the spillage from the Exxon Valdez tanker off Alaska (Benchley, 1995, 139).

These problems seem so vast and widespread that you may be thinking what can one person do about it?

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