When people put the ocean to the end

People are hurting the oceans. Now the sea is causing retaliation. About 3 billion people live in about 100 miles (160km) of seas, the number could double in the next decade when people live around the coastal cities.

The oceans produce 3,000 billion dollars annually of goods and services as well as values ​​not to mention the ecology of the earth. Life cannot exist without huge resources from the ocean. They are even becoming more important than before for people.

Mining began under the sea floor, 200 nautical miles (370 km) offshore. Nineteen exploration licenses have been issued. New summer vacation routes are opening across the Arctic Ocean. Marine resources promise a high pharmaceutical output: the number of patents still increases to 12% per year. A study showed that genetic material has hundreds of times more anti-cancer properties from oceans than on the surface.

Photo: blooplanet.com

But these developments are still small compared to the greater pressures that are reshaping the earth, both on the ocean and in land. We have long known that humans are hurting oceans, as evidenced by the melting of Arctic ice in the summer, the spread of oxygen-deficient areas and the death of coral reefs. . Currently, the consequences of the damage are beginning to spread from the coast to the mainland.

Thailand is a clear example. In the 1990s, they cleared littoral wetlands to make shrimp farms. The 2011 ocean storm, which was soon stopped by mangrove swamps, flooded Thailand's industrial center, costing billions of dollars. More serious is the poor management of global fish supplies.

About 3 billion people on Earth need a fifth of their protein coming from fish, making it a more important source of protein than beef. But the vicious cycle is growing as fish supplies shrink and fishermen continue to fight over what they can still exploit.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a third of the fish supply in the oceans has been over-exploited; Some people estimate that the rate is more than half. A poll showed that biological sources of large meat, such as tuna, swordfish and flagfish, may have been reduced by up to 90% since the 1950s.

But the changes to harvest regulation on the oceans are still nothing compared to the two worst incidents, both on land: acidification and pollution. But humanity's only hope is to improve activities on the oceans, the environment that occupies half of the earth's surface.