April 2012
TEN THREATS TO OCEAN HEALTH
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE• Sea levels rise
• Temperature rises
• Storms, floods, weather
• Current patterns
• Coral bleaching
• Caused by increasing man-made carbon dioxide emissions
• Makes the ocean more acidic
• Changes the chemistry of the sea and is harmful for many forms of marine life
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION & CLIMATE CHANGE
• Swaths of ocean that don't support life due to a lack of oxygen
• Growing at an alarming rate
• Over 400 known to exist
• Thought to be caused by global climate change and fertilizer/pesticide runoff
DEAD ZONES
• Over 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities
• Oil Spills
• Production waste
• Marine Debris
• GPGP
• Shipping
POLLUTION
• When the amount of fish caught is more than the amount of fish needed to sustain fish stocks in a given region
• Disrupts the food chain
• Bycatch – unintentional captures
OVERFISHING
• Supposed to respond to overfishing
• Poorly managed operations
• Nutrient and chemical pollution released into environment
• Accidental release of farmed fish is also damaging
• Unregulated
IRRESPONSIBLE FISH FARMING
• From:
• Illegal Aquarium trade
• Irresponsible aquarium owners
• Release of foreign bait
• Traveling Ships
• Displace native species
• Diminishes biodiversity
INVASIVE SPECIES
• Offshore drilling
• Chemicals like mercury, arsenic, and lead also come up with the oil
• Seismic waves used harm marine life
• Infrastructure erodes coastline
• Mangrove destruction
• Habitat loss
• 25% of all species may be extinct by 2050
• Tourism
RESOURCE EXTRACTION & COASTAL DEVELOPMENT
• Affects everything
• 50-100 million killed each year
• Bycatch
• Hunted
• When finned sharks are thrown back still alive and bleed to death
• They reproduce too slowly for populations to recover
SHARK FINNING/WHALING
• Coal plants
• Ends up in the food we eat
• Already contaminated water in all 50 states
• Biomagnification
• Tuna
MERCURY POISONING
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