Today is World Ocean’s Day and most of the world is apparently celebrating it digging more graves in the liquid graveyard of the dead. Don’t ask what do the oceans hold for the future; they’re screaming about a dooming legacy of polluted waters, dead aquatic life and a broken food chain, of which we truly don’t have any reason to be proud of.

Huge quantities of fish and other ocean wildlife have been lost over the last 50 years, through dramatic increases in fishing operations, technological advances, coastal development and pollution. Seas and oceans of the world are at risk.

Polluted waters of the world oceans

Oceans have been the great sink pot, dumping ground for nuclear waste as political nations neutralize. Transportation of nuclear wastes, atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, underground nuclear weapons testing have led to nuclearization and pollution of the oceans.

Untreated sewage pouring into the world’s seas and oceans is polluting them further even as oil spills kill aquatic life. Farm chemicals and heavy metals from factories add to this pollution.

How is Global warming affecting the oceans?

Rising temperatures are spreading diseases amongst corrals resulting in the death of the rainforest’s of the oceans.

As the amount of carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, more of it dissolves in the ocean resulting in Ocean acidification. Most organisms live near the surface, where the greatest pH change would be expected to occur. Coral reefs and other organisms whose skeletons or shells contain calcium carbonate may be particularly affected; they could find it much more difficult to build these structures in water with a lower pH.

Can acidic waters sustain life?

The critical base of the ocean food web is shrinking as warmer water results in reduced production of phytoplankton in the world’s oceans. The result of pollution is anoxic water, which is water without any dissolved oxygen and results in dead zones.Oceans today are full of Dead zones, high in acidic toxic waters, rife with dead fish.

In the food chain, one toxic organism is eaten by another, larger animal, which is eaten by another animal, and can end up being our seafood, thereby giving you a toxic food chain.

Over fishing

Over fishing way beyond outside safe biological limits has reduced ocean fish stocks by great numbers. Most of the problems associated with overfishing have been caused in the last 50 years by the rapid advances in fishing technology.

Big factory boats have all the equipment necessary either to freeze or tin fish caught by their hunting ships, so that they need to return to base only when their holds are full. Overfishing damages the food chain as the feed of a particular dish disappears it feeds on another.

Deep waters booming with aquatic life succumb to extensive bottom trawling, to fulfill rising demand for fish.

The Oceans remain a whole world of unexplored habitat that oceanographers are only just becoming aware of. A world that might contain the cure to many diseases, a world we are destroying without even exploring its benefits. Dive in to protect the oceans on this world oceans day!

Life began in the oceans and eventually migrated to land. If we do not revere and protect the Oceans as our common heritage, they will eventually rise up to swallow the very life that started from them.

Image credit: [1], [2]