World Oceans Day is celebrated each year on 8th June to highlight the importance of oceans and to raise global awareness of the existing threats to oceans. The day is the official UN-designated international day of ocean celebration. The two-year theme for 2013 and 2014 is “together we have the power to protect the ocean”.

OCEANS ARE IMPORTANT FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you are connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live” – Sylvia Earle

Oceans provide us precious minerals, food and enormous highway for business. Oceans cover three quarters (70%) of our planet Earth and holds 97% of planet’s water. Surface of Earth contains (5) five oceans, including the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern. The main oceans further subdivided into smaller regions called seas, gulfs, or bays. The world ocean has an area of about 361 million sq km (139,400,000 sq mi), an average depth of about 3,730 m (12,230 ft), and a total volume of about 1,347,000,000 cu km (322,280,000 cu mi). Each cubic mile of seawater weighs approximately 4.7 billion tons and holds 166 million tons of dissolved solids.

Salinity is a main feature of oceans. Six elements (chlorine, sodium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, and potassium) represent over 90% of the total salts dissolved in the oceans. On the deep ocean floor, manganese nodules, formed by the precipitation of manganese oxides and other metallic salts around a nucleus of rock or shell, represent a potentially rich and extensive resource. The ocean floor might hold more than the 110 million tones of rare earths elements. Countries such as Kuwait, and Israel, desalinate ocean water to produce freshwater.

Oceans provide food resources for more than one billion people around the world. As much as 10% of human protein (rich in essential fatty acids) intake comes from the oceans. Pharmacists have been using coral reef plants, blue green algae and animals for making medicines of arthritis, Alzheimer’s, heart diseases and cancers.

Oceans are full of natural treasures. Oysters are valuable sources of pearls. The oceans’ “shallow continental shelves” are a great source of sand and gravel. A study reveals that the great amount of deuterium present in the ocean water makes it a perfect source of energy that can be used in the development of the nuclear fusion reactors. Oceans provide recreational activities for people around the world. Fishing, scuba diving, boating, swimming, and water skiing are favourite pass time for water lovers.

THE OCEANS AFFECT GLOBAL CLIMATE AND WEATHER The atmosphere and oceans influenced each other. Earth’s atmosphere mainly depends on oceans and ocean life. Oceans regulate weather and improve global temperature. They serve as global temperature stabilisers and help to buffer man caused carbon dioxide emission. Nearly half the CO2 produced by human activities in the last 200 years has dissolved into the ocean.

Most of the sunlight absorbed by earth is absorbed at the top of the tropical ocean. The atmosphere does not absorb much sunlight. It is too transparent. Sunlight passes through the air and warms the surface of the ocean. Most of the ocean is a deep navy blue. It absorbs 98% of the solar radiation when the sun is high in the sky. Ocean plants such as mangroves, sea grass bed etc generate half of the world’s oxygen. According to UN oceans are lungs of our planet Earth.

The action of winds blowing over the ocean surface creates waves and the great current systems of the oceans. When winds are strong enough to produce spray and whitecaps, tiny droplets of ocean water are thrown up into the atmosphere where some evaporate, leaving microscopic grains of salt sustained by the turbulence of the air. These tiny particles may become nuclei for the condensation of water vapour to form fogs and clouds.

When water evaporates, heat removed from the oceans and stored in the atmosphere by the molecules of water vapour. When condensation occurs, this stored heat freed to the atmosphere to develop the mechanical energy of its motion. The atmosphere obtains nearly half of its energy for circulation from the condensation of evaporated ocean water.

MAJOR THREATS TO OCEANS Human activities have imposed alarming danger to oceans life especially cetacean species (whales, dolphins and porpoises). Cetacean species are oceanic mammals found in both freshwater and marine environment. According to WWF for nature report, Nineteen species of cetaceans had so far been reported found in Pakistan, also home to the blue whale, known to be the world’s largest animal, as well as the finless porpoise, one of the smallest marine cetacean species. There are about 1,300 whales are living in River Indus. Of the 18 cetacean species found in Pakistan, three are baleen whales while the remaining are toothed whales and dolphins.

These species are facing tremendous threats such as whaling, pollution, extinction of food resources, loss of habitat, climate change, toxic substances, plastic materials presence, net entanglement, and ship strikes and over fishing.

In Pakistan, unregulated use of gillnets in profit-making fishing and a vast boost in fishing boats are major threats to the cetacean species. the precious cetaceans entangled in fishing nets each year. The fishing fleet increased from 2,133 and 4,355 (in 1986) to 6,636 and 10,689 in Sindh and Balochistan, respectively, in 2011. The United Nations resolution on gillnets has restricted its length to 2.5km. However, in Pakistan the average size of a gillnet is from 10km to 12km while exceptionally large size gillnets (up to 24km) are also in use.

Overfishing is one big threat and directly changing aquatic ecosystems. Statistics reveal that global main marine fish stocks are in danger, increasingly pressured by overfishing and environmental degradation. Several important commercial fish populations have declined to the point where their survival is threatened. Unless the current situation improves, stocks of all species currently fished for food predicted to collapse by 2048.

The latest data from the international scientific committee, which monitors tuna in the Pacific, showed blue fin tuna stocks were a small fraction of what they had been and were in danger of disappearing. According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate, over 70% of the world’s fish species either fully exploited or depleted. The dramatic increase of destructive fishing techniques world-wide destroys marine mammals and entire ecosystems. FAO reports that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing world-wide appears to be increasing as fisher men seek to avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking catches and declining fish stocks.

The oceans are facing threats from global warming. Global warming have negative impacts on sea levels, coastlines, ocean acidification, ocean currents, seawater, sea surface temperature, tides and the sea floor. Human activities emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide causing rise of the average ocean temperature. Human-based carbon emissions as the primary culprit for average acidity increases of 30 percent in the world’s surface waters since the Industrial Revolution.

Marine population is facing terrible time due to global warming. Algae produces food for other marine life through photosynthesis is vanishing due to ocean warming. The acidification of the oceans due to climate change impairs the ability of coral reefs and shelled organisms to form skeletons and shells. Research has shown that krill reproduce in significantly smaller numbers when ocean temperatures rise. This can have a disastrous effect by disrupting the life cycle of krill eaters, such as penguins and seals. According to the World Wildlife Fund, a small increase of two degrees Celsius would destroy almost all existing coral reefs. Additionally, ocean circulation changes due to warming would have disastrous impact on marine fisheries.

Warmed ocean surface is leading to increased temperature. When water heats up, it expands. This expansion results in shoreline erosion, and powerful storms and hurricanes/cyclones. These stronger storms can increase damage to human structures when they make landfall. They can also harm marine ecosystems like coral reefs and kelp forests. An increase in storm frequency means more destruction for small habitats. Global warming has caused the global ocean temperatures to increase by an average of a third of a degree Celsius (about a half a degree Fahrenheit), and this change has fuelled the increase in hurricane intensity.

Presence of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilisers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, and other solids are polluting our oceans. Solid waste like bags, foams, plastic materials are fatal for marine mammals, fish, and birds that mistake these materials for food.

Scientists are discovering that pharmaceuticals ingested by humans but not fully processed by our bodies are eventually ending up in the fish we eat. According to a research, Pakistan has a coastline that stretches over 1050km, (990km measured as a straight line) along the Arabian Sea. The coast of Pakistan consists of sandy beaches that interrupted by rocky protruding points. The Indus delta located at the head of the Arabian Sea has found changing its characteristics due to damming upstream, which has reduced river borne sediments.

Pakistani mangroves are located mainly along the delta of the Indus River eco region. Major mangrove forests are on the coastline of Sindh and Balochistan. The mangroves are bush like trees, which grow in shallow waters often on small islands, which regularly get swamped by changes.

The mangroves provide a diverse habitat for a complex and inter-reliant community of invertebrates, fish, birds, and reptiles. News report revealed that despite their importance to this region the mangrove forests are constantly under attack from untreated chemicals and industry bi-products, which discarded directly into the sea. Near urban areas, mangroves are cleared for developmental activities. Reduced water flow in the River Indus after the construction of dams and barrages upstream is also causing damage to the mangrove forest and its surrounding ecosystem.

The increased presence of loud or continual sounds from ships, sonar devices, oilrigs, and even from natural sources like earthquakes are disrupting the voyage, communication, hunting, and reproduction patterns of many marine animals, particularly aquatic mammals like whales and dolphins. The highest levels of noise appear in the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and along popular shipping passages like the Suez Canal.

Healthy, clean and unpolluted oceans ensure safe environment for present and future generation. Together we can protect oceans and our environment.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2013