Why the Ocean is Depending on us

The ocean is an incredible part of earth. There's so much no one knows about it, making it a ominous, and interesting place. We may not know everything about it, but there are a few things that couldn't be more obvious. Among those is the blunt fact that the ocean needs our help. Just as we are destroying our forests and land, we're destroying our oceans alike.

I recently watched a Ted Talk on dead zones. I learned that dead zones are areas in oceans effected by hypoxia. Hypoxia is a deficiency in oxygen. Nancy Rabalais explains in the Ted Talk how these occur. They're mostly from nitrogen that finds it's way into the water. The most common way nitrogen gets into the water is from fertilizers used for crops. These fertilizers run off into rivers where they're eventually deposited into the ocean and over time form these dead zones and currently there is three times the nitrogen in the Mississippi River than in the 1950's.

An article by environmental reporter, Tony Briscoe, states that there is around 400 coastal dead zones worldwide. In these dead zones there's an abundance of blue-green algae. This algae is toxic and thrives in these nitrogen rich areas, making it that much harder for life to go on.

By reducing our "nitrogen footprint" we can help these areas and hopefully begin restoration. Not using corn oil, eating less meant and using non-ethanol gasoline are steps you can take to help this process. Eating organic foods, with no preservatives and extra fertilizers that run into the rivers is also another way individuals can help.

While dead zones and "nitrogen pollution" are a major problem, we also have to focus on the other types of pollution in our oceans, like the tons of plastic. Another Ted Talk delivered by Andrew Forrest focuses on plastic and how we can solve this problem. He said something rather disturbing when he informed us that by 2025 there will be one ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish. Plastic does not belong in oceans, never mind in such a great quantity.

Andrew Forrest is working on a way to stop the production of new plastic and instead push to make a shift to only producing plastic from recycled plastic. He's proposing his plans to major companies and hopes this will be the last effort needed to bring this change. In his Ted Talk Forrest mentions a website, #NoPlasticWaste. The website includes many facts and visuals and encourages people to help Andrew with this movement. One of the astonishing facts on their website is that there are 51 million microplastic particles in the ocean- 500 times more than the stars in our galaxy.

Image from #NoPlasticWaste

Reducing how much plastic you use and dispose of is a great way to help our oceans and sea life. Recycling and making sure you know where your plastic is going is another important step to ensure plastic doesn't end up in our ocean.

Pollution as well as climate change, the subject of my last weeks blog, are taking their toll in more ways than one. In a third Ted Talk delivered by Kristen Marhaver, she explained the damage coral reefs around the world are undergoing. She mentioned how The Great Barrier Reef lost 2/3 of its coral due to bleaching. When the temperature rises to high for these unique creatures, the stress is too great and the algae leaves the structure. What is left behind is a colorless skeleton that starves and dies.

In an article from The Washington Post , I read that if the Earth warms by 3.6 degrees fahrenheit,  99 percent of the coral could and most likely will die. The article also said we are almost there. We need to take actions to improve these conditions so these reefs can be rehabilitated.

All of these issues with our oceans are very serious  but if we handle them we can restore the amazing vast waters before it is too late. We must act before we reach the point of no return. I don't want to be the reason so many amazing creatures have to suffer, and you shouldn't want that either, so do your part in helping these seas return to their former glory.

Briscoe, Tony. "What Are Algae Blooms and Dead Zones?" Herald-Mail Media, 19 Nov. 2019,
www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/what-are-algae-blooms-and-dead-zones/article_8335f80a-
789e-54cd-8c75-e37bc3b1b8ff.html.

Forrest, Andrew, performer. A Radical Plan to End Plastic Waste. Ted Talk, 2019.

Marhaver, Kristen, performer. Why I Still Have Hope for Coral Reefs. Ted Talk, 2017.

Mooney, Chris. "Scientists Are Weighing Radical Steps to save Coral." The Washington Post,
18 Nov. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/climate-solutions/amp-stories/scientists-
save-coral-reefs-climate-change/.

Rabalais, Nancy, performer. The "Dead Zone" of the Gulf of Mexico. Ted Talk, 2017.

"A World Free of Plastic Waste. It's Possible. But We Need Your Help!" No Plastic Waste, noplasticwaste.org/.