Her beautiful darkness, Our ugly truth

The sea holds a beautiful darkness, with an ugly truth, so blatant, it hides right before you. Today, we uncover the disturbing truth of our oceans & the disturbing possibility of our future.

The sea is vast, the sea is home, the sea is everywhere, the sea is close. This very fact makes the sea an easy target for our ignorant & greedy hearts.

Let us begin with overfishing. Overfishing is an act against the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development refers to the 'development that meets the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. So what exactly happens when we overfish? We, in very simple words, mess up the natural order of the established food chain system in the ocean. As a result of this? We suffer & the marine biota suffer. A simple example would be that of the Mekong River. The past decade of subsistence & illegal fishing was so prevalent that the once common Giant Mekong Catfish has now become endangered. Catfish catch in the Mekong has also reduced in quantity & size in recent years. The staple that once fed families & provided them with an income has been exploited, leaving families to feel the direct repercussions of their ignorant actions. This is especially the case given that the Mekong stretches over 6 nations; you can only imagine what a dwindling catfish population has on a large group of individuals, who were once heavily dependent on it. You see, overfishing doesn't just harm the fish or its predators, it harms the entire ecosystem - the same ecosystem that we, humans, live in!

Next up, tourism & development. Now, you might be saying, 'Oh, please! How does MY travelling affect the oceans?' Well, I bet it didn't occur to you that  80% of all tourism takes place in coastal areas, with beaches & coral reefs amongst the most popular destinations & that coastal areas are one of the most densely populated areas worldwide. (Ahh! Perhaps things are becoming a little more clear to you now...). Every habitat or environment has a carrying capacity. This refers to the number of living things a region can support without resulting in environmental degradation. To tackle this problem without having to relocate massive numbers of people (which is really taxing on a State's finances), coastal regions have opted to develop & expand. Oh, yes! This allows more people to visit the beach, get a tan, surf some waves, or even enhances tourism income of a country. But unknowing to many, this also puts a strain on the environment - the coastal regions & their associated oceans. So if we're really looking at the long-term viability of tourism in a country, perhaps we should be looking at eco-tourism (but of course, once again, eco-tourism has it flaws as well). A case here would be that of the Mediterranean. With over 100 million tourists flocking to the beach annually, more than half of its 46000km long coastline has been developed, resulting in a large-scale deterioration of a habitat. It takes tens to thousands of years for a habitat to develop, for even a tree to grow, but it only takes a minute for us to destroy all of it. Are our actions truly justified? Is such development truly worth it?

What a mess we've made, no? But if you still want to see Sally selling her seashells by the seashore, I'd suggest you take a step back, be aware of what's happening to our oceans & start taking action (yes, I shall cover this soon)!

Do stay tune for more depressing factors that hurt our oceans.

References:

• World Wildlife Fund Global. 2013. WWF - Threats to oceans and coasts. [ONLINE] Available at:http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/. [Accessed 15 October 14].
• World Wildlife Fund Global. 2012. WWF - Threat of Over-fishing in the Mekong. [ONLINE] Available at:http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/freshwater_problems/river_decline/10_rivers_risk/mekong_lancang/mekong_threats/. [Accessed 15 October 14].
• International Institute for Sustainable Development. 2013. What is Sustainable Development?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.iisd.org/sd/. [Accessed 15 October 14].
• FAO (2010) State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) - SOFIA 2010. FAO Fisheries Department
• UN Atlas of the Oceans. 2013. Coasts and Coral Reefs -. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.oceansatlas.org/servlet/CDSServlet?status=ND0zNTE4JjY9ZW4mMzM9KiYzNz1rb3M~. [Accessed 15 October 14].