When I was listening to the BBC World Service this morning I heard a very disturbing story about how a recent report by a group of experts in various fields related to oceanography, showed that the condition of the ocean is much worse than expected. They think that we might be entering a period when many species of marine animals are in danger of becoming extinct. Although the earth has experienced mass extinctions before, this one may be the worst in human history. The greatest threats are caused by global warming. But, increased pollution of the oceans, the fact that the ocean is becoming more acidic, and overfishing are all contributing to the problem. The decline in the condition of the ocean is increasing at a much faster pace than previously thought. The various factors seem to work synergistically to accelerate the decline. For example, pollution sticks to small particles of plastic on the bottom of the sea. Because of that, fish which live in the bottom of the ocean are more likely to consume the pollutants. They carry it throughout the food chain. All the way up to bigger fish and whales.
This just provides more evidence for why we need to protect marine resources, including whales. Our continued consumption of large quantities of them can push them to the brink of extinction.
The following article explains in detail what the BBC World Service radio reported on this morning's news:
Black, Richard. "World's oceans in 'shocking' decline."BBC News -- Science & Environment, 20 June 2011: Web. 21 Jun 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13796479>.
An older article I found on the BBC news site told how even sharks, especially ones that swim in the open ocean, are disappearing at an alarming rate, mostly due to overfishing, sometimes just for their fins. You can refer to that article by clicking on the link below:
"Threat to ocean sharks increases." BBC News, 22 Feb 2007: Web. 21 Jun 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6385995.stm>.
I also think polluting ocean is one of the bad cause of disappearing the marine creatures. If we continue caputuring the whales, it is clear that they'll disappear, however, we can make an effort not to pollute the ocean. Also,we can limit the number of the whales we can caputure. I don't know how many whales are eaten in a year, because I've never eaten the whales. I think if people who are against continuing whales, they should try to make young people know this problem by promoting something.
ReplyDelete