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Life below water really interest me because of how much life and diversity there is. There's so many types of fishes, sharks, and different plants, And not to mention only 20 % of the ocean has been explored which means there is still so much that we haven't discovered. Who knows what kind of things are in the ocean but maybe in the future we will learn more about it.

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Goal 14 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs

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Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

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In this article it talks about different problems in the ocean such as dead fish, plastic / trash but it also talks about solutions and different things like different fishes and how many there are in varieties and facts about the ocean like "Oceans cover 70% of the planet Earth and make up 97% of Earth’s water. "Over 3 billion people depend on marine ecosystems to make their living. It’s estimated that the goods and services the ocean provides are worth at least US$2.5 trillion per year, making it the world’s seventh-largest economy."

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Here's why healthy oceans and seas are essential to our existence.

By jessica jurkschat
27 october 2020

Our blue planet is defined by its oceans. Sadly, the saying 'plenty more fish in the sea' could soon become obsolete.

Let's start with some statistics

Oceans cover 70% of the planet Earth and make up 97% of Earth's water.

Over 3 billion people depend on marine ecosystems to make their living. It's estimated that the goods and services the ocean provides are worth at least US$2.5 trillion per year, making it the world's seventh-largest economy.

It's estimated that we only know 230,000 of the two million living species in the ocean.

More than 80% of the ocean remains unexplored. Since it's difficult to protect what we don't know, only about 7% of the world's oceans are designated as marine protected areas.

100% of profits from the sales of #TOGETHER products go to charities that advance the Sustainable Development Goals. Find out more here.

They absorb about 30% of the carbon dioxide that humans produce, helping to reduce the impact of climate change. Unfortunately, the increase in CO2 has caused ocean acidity to rise by approximately 30% since pre-industrial times. And this acidification is causing big problems for marine species like coral. In fact, about 50% of the world's shallow water coral reefs have already been destroyed - with no prospects for recovery.

One of the advantages of plastic is that it is designed to last. Which is a blessing and a curse. Nearly all the plastic ever created still exists in some form today. Not only does it end up in our oceans, but it can also take hundreds of years to break down - if at all. Current estimates report that there are over 150 million tonnes of plastics in the ocean today and an estimated eight million metric tons of plastic waste entering our oceans every year. This equates to one garbage truck's worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute, the total weighing an equivalent of 90 aircraft carriers. On top of that, models project that by 2050, there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans.

It's early days yet, but work is underway to clean up the five massive rubbish patches in our oceans. One pioneering venture in this field was founded in 2013 by an 18-year-old Dutch inventor called Boyan Slat. His company, the Ocean Cleanup, is developing a passive ocean cleanup technology, that just like the plastic, moves with the currents to catch it. By deploying a fleet of systems, The Ocean Cleanup has estimated to be able to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch every five years.

Welcome to the dead zones

Agricultural runoff and sewage flowing into the ocean create areas of low oxygen, dubbed "dead zones". In these areas, marine life is unable to survive, and ecosystems collapse. To date, scientists have identified 415 dead zones worldwide, with a total surface area of over 245,000km². That's about the same size as the United Kingdom.

Plenty more fish in the sea?

Sadly, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), less and less so. Roughly 1,414 species of fish, or 5% of known species, are endangered. In May 2020, for the first time in modern day history, the IUCN formally declared a marine fish species as extinct. Despite extensive searches over the years, the smooth handfish (sympterichthys unipennis), a shallow-water bottom-dweller with spiky fins and a barb-like protrusion on its forehead, has not been seen since 1802, when French biologist François Péron scooped one up near the coast of Tasmania.

In 2015, in the small Madagascar village of Andavadoaka, locals who rely on fishing for their livelihoods were asked to close some of their favourite fishing zones for two months, allowing time for the species to breed and for populations to grow again. After the hiatus, they returned to fishing, and were surprised to find their catches had doubled in size. More importantly, their earnings tripled. Twenty other villages have now followed their lead.

Beluga whales, weighing in at up to 1.5 tons each, are extremely sociable mammals. They do everything with their pods, which can range in size from just a few in number to several hundred. Their signature bulbous foreheads (called "melons") are flexible, allowing beluga whales to pull faces. These talented creatures can also whistle and chirp, a fact that has earned them the nickname "canaries of the sea". Unfortunately, shipping and other human marine activity cause underwater noise pollution that interferes with their communication, making it harder for them to find food, find mates, and look after their young.

With ever-expanding global trade, protecting ecosystems from invasive species is harder than ever. Scientists estimate there are 5,000 to 10,000 species traveling in cargo ships at any given time, floating in the ballast water used to keep the ships stable at sea. When the water is released on arrival, so are those living creatures. Zebra mussels are said to have attached themselves to the sides of ships travelling from Central Asia, then set up home in the Great Lakes of North America. There, they now clog boat engines, damage water pipes - and, most significantly, threaten native species.

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10 need-to-know facts about... Life Below Water

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Our blue planet is defined by its oceans. Sadly, the saying 'plenty more fish in the sea' could soon become obsolete.

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"We all rely on the ocean, whether we know it or not. Earth's vast expanses of water are key to the success of all life on Earth. We eat fish from the ocean, we breathe the oxygen it gives off, we feel the warmth of its huge currents. Without a healthy ocean, humans cannot thrive.

But the ocean has taken a pummelling and we have not been treating it well. It is facing down three huge threats: overfishing, pollution and climate change. Most of these are caused by human mismanagement. Nature is stretching to breaking point. If we don't stop, the ocean could be drastically changed within our lifetimes."

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But the ocean has taken a pummelling and we have not been treating it well. It is facing down three huge threats: overfishing, pollution and climate change. Most of these are caused by human mismanagement. Nature is stretching to breaking point. If we don't stop, the ocean could be drastically changed within our lifetimes.

We asked the experts: unless we change our ways, what will the ocean look like in 50 years?

There will be more plastic than fish

Rivers of pollution flow into the ocean every day, with little sign of slowing down. Marine animals and birds now regularly eat plastic, and so do humans. It is estimated that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the sea than fish.

As the plastic piles up, fish disappear. Since industrialised fishing began in the mid-twentieth century, the oceans have been transformed. Today's seas contain only 10% of the marlin, tuna, sharks and other large predators that were found in the 1950s. To stop this slaughter, conservationists are calling for a third of the world's oceans to be protected from fishing.

Museum curator Miranda Lowe explains, 'When we kill large predators, like marlin and sharks, it disrupts the oceans, with consequences that can affect us all.

'Overfishing puts the whole ocean ecosystem out of balance. But some animals, like penguins and turtles, can adapt and snack on jellyfish when other food runs low.'

A jellyfish take-over

As our appetite for seafood grows and fish populations crash worldwide, scientists think that jellyfish might be the big winners. With fewer fish around, jellyfish have less competition for the plankton they feed on. They also thrive in warmer waters and seas polluted by fertilisers from farming. In the oceans of the future, jellyfish could be one of the few things left on the menu.

If we fished more sustainably, the picture would be much brighter. If we all ate seafood less regularly and we allowed stocks time to recover, fish populations would be able to keep up with human appetites.

The water will be warmer and it will hold less oxygen

Even if we stopped all fishing and tackled plastic pollution, life underwater would still be struggling to deal with climate change.

Earth's oceans have been around for billions of years, and they've gone through periods of warming and cooling before. Museum scientists study these past periods of climate change so they can predict what will happen to ocean animals in the future.

Research leader Prof Richard Twitchett says, 'We have a really good idea of what oceans look like when the climate warms. It has happened to Earth many times before, and here in the Museum we have collections of fossil animals and plants that date back millions of years, so we can see how they responded. The rocks and fossils show us that as temperature increased in the past, oxygen levels fell and huge areas of the seafloor became uninhabitable.

'Warm water holds less oxygen, which is a big problem for marine animals. Anyone who owns a fish tank knows you need air bubbling through it because the fish inside will use up the oxygen.'

When the oxygen levels go down, dead zones will expand. These are areas of the ocean where the water quality is too poor to sustain life. Pollution will only add to the devastation unless we stop it.

Our fish and chips will get smaller

Some animals will get smaller as their watery home gets hotter and oxygen disappears. Any animal with gills will suffer, including fish, oysters, octopus and crabs.

Other animals breathe air, like whales and turtles, so they get their oxygen from the atmosphere. They won't be affected in the same way, but everything else will. Smaller fish will have knock-on effects up the food chain, and result in smaller predators too, like sharks.

Richard explains, 'We have measured the sizes of fossils to test this prediction and in almost all cases marine animals became smaller as temperatures rose in the past. So, it's looking likely that our fish portions will shrink in the future. Even aside from climate change, we've been overfishing for a long time now, and we have already eaten a lot of the bigger animals in the water. It's a double whammy.'

Warm water decreases an ecosystem's productivity too. Certain organisms like burrowing sea urchins and mud shrimp that live within the seafloor are really important for nutrient recycling. So if those animals get smaller, there would be less productivity within the oceans systems.

Coastlines will change

Climate change is causing ice sheets to melt at a rapid rate, which means sea levels everywhere will rise. That could be a tragedy for humans as coastal cities face flooding, but for marine animals it probably won't matter too much.

Richard explains, 'A metre or so of sea level rise isn't a lot at all compared to past ice ages when Earth saw sea levels changes of tens or hundreds of metres. The UK, for instance, has had much higher and much lower sea levels before, and marine ecosystems continued to thrive. Sea level alone is not a problem for marine animals.

'The impact on us, on our coastal cities or low-lying islands, is the real issue - not the impact on animals.'

Water will become more acidic

The ocean is a major carbon sink. Any animal with a hard and calcareous skeleton, like plankton, stores carbon inside its tiny body. These miniscule organisms are powerhouses in the fight against climate change.

But ocean acidification can dissolve their precious skeletons, so it's vital that we work to stop that.

Richard says, 'Thriving calcareous plankton are the natural way of cutting carbon from the atmosphere. If you end up destroying those then you are in trouble.'

Many animals, including whales, also rely on krill and plankton as a food source. Ocean acidification would affect them too. Blue whales, the largest animal on Earth, have grown so because they are able to take advantage of the wealth of krill and plankton in our oceans. If they lost their food source, it's likely we'd lose them too.

Farming the sea

Seaweed could become a staple in our diet. Many seaweeds are grown worldwide without artificial fertilisers or pesticides and they are a nutritious food, rich in protein. Seaweeds can also be used to feed livestock and as a biological alternative to plastic packaging.

Today, global production is limited by pests and diseases, but Museum scientists are working to help farmers put more seaweed on our plates.

Other pollutants could increase

Plastic isn't the only source of pollution. Chemicals, light and noise all affect marine life too.

For example, throughout their long lives, whales build up large plugs of wax inside their ear canals. Museum scientist Richard Sabin has analysed this earwax and identified traces of toxins which were once used in pesticides, paints and plastics. Whales eat these toxins and pass them onto their young. The chemicals build up over time and can damage the animals' immune systems and ability to reproduce.

Richard says, 'Many of these pollutants were banned decades ago but they are very persistent and are still circulating through marine ecosystems. In addition, our studies indicate the effects of other sub-lethal stressors such as ocean noise pollution, which hampers the ability of large whale species to communicate with each other. This is particularly important for solitary species like the blue whale who call to each other across large distances to find a mate, and social species like killer whales who communicate when they hunt.

'As apex predators in the ocean, cetaceans play an important role in maintaining the delicate balance of marine ecosystems. Imagine a world where we lose our ocean giants, our resident coastal cetacean communities, and the ability to show our children the beauty and extreme diversity of these incredible animals.'

So what's the outlook?

Dead zones in the ocean remain a threat. Protecting this precious resource isn't an easy matter. The goal is making the whole ecosystem more resilient, more able to cope with change.

Lots of these problems are far bigger than any individual choice. Only collective action can solve them, which requires commitments from governments and business.

However, we can all make a difference by recycling our plastic waste, buying sustainable seafood, and reducing our own carbon emissions.
Read more about how you can make a difference >

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Will the ocean really be dead in 50 years?

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The ocean is facing down three huge threats: overfishing, pollution and climate change.

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In the article it also says that birds regularly eat plastics a long with humans and that around 2050 the sea would be filled with more plastic than ocean life

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Oceans are areas of salty water that fill enormous basins on the Earth’s surface. Even though Earth has one continuous body of saltwater, scientists and geographers divide it into five different sections. From biggest to smallest, they are the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern, and the Arctic Oceans.

Oceans are deep as well as wide. On average an ocean is a little over two miles deep. But about 200 miles southwest of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, the water in the Mariana Trench is almost seven miles deep. That’s the deepest part of the ocean.

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Most of Earth’s surface—more than 70 percent—is covered by oceans.

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"For more than 500 million years, sea creatures have been getting bigger — much bigger as it turns out, according to a study by scientists who say that the evolutionary trend toward larger body size fits with a 19th-century principle known as Cope's rule.

The rule, first posited in the late 1800s by Edward Drinker Cope, "states that evolution tends to increase body size over geologic time in a lineage of populations.""

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For The Evolution Of Marine Creatures, Bigger Is Better, Study Says

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A new study published in Science looked at thousands of marine animals over a 540-million-year evolutionary span. Their conclusion: Most of them got larger.

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The evolution of ocean animals is cool, with ancient origins, diverse adaptations, and incredible variety. From fish developing gills to deep-sea creatures adapting to extreme environments, the ocean's life forms showcase unique survival strategies and symbiotic relationships, highlighting the dynamic and complex processes driving marine biodiversity.

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"Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Coral polyps, the animals primarily responsible for building reefs, can take many forms: large reef building colonies, graceful flowing fans, and even small, solitary organisms. Thousands of species of corals have been discovered; some live in warm, shallow, tropical seas and others in the cold, dark depths of the ocean."

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Coral reefs are amazing ecosystems, full with vibrant marine life and breathtaking beauty. They provide crucial habitats, support biodiversity, and protect coastlines. Home to countless species, reefs showcase nature's intricate balance, resilience, and adaptability, making them vital to our planet's health and utterly fascinating to explore.

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"Asia's coral reefs are renowned for their stunning beauty and unparalleled biodiversity. The Coral Triangle, an area spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and the Solomon Islands, is often referred to as the "Amazon of the Seas" due to its incredible marine diversity."

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Discovering the Marvels of Asian Marine Life

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A Journey Through the Waters of Diversity

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The reason I chose this sentence in this article is because it describes the stunning beauty and unparalleled biodiversity of Asia's coral reefs, with a particular focus on the Coral Triangle. This region, which spans several countries, is highlighted for its incredible marine diversity and is often called the "Amazon of the Seas."

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"The coastal waters of South Africa accommodate a rich diversity of species of which five spectacular marine fauna make up the most notable. Known as the Marine Big Five, they are the great white shark, the southern right whale, the bottlenose dolphin, the Cape fur seal, and the African penguin."

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The Marine Big Five - South Africa's Icons of the Deep

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Journey with us as we get to know more about the extraordinary Marine Big Five that grace our South African waters.

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The reason I chose this sentence in this article is because it describes the main 5 animals of Africa's oceans: the great white shark, southern right whale, bottlenose dolphin, Cape fur seal, and African penguin. It also talks about the rich marine biodiversity in the coastal waters of South Africa,

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"In the Caribbean Sea’s crystal-clear waters, coral reefs teem with a remarkable variety of aquatic life. Over 700 fish species live here, from graceful angelfish to large manta rays. Picture yourself snorkelling in Isla de Providencia’s shallow waters off the coast of Columbia, spotting turtles, octopuses, and starfish constellations amongst the coral. Bliss."

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Wildlife in Central America & Caribbean | HX Hurtigruten Expeditions US

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Given the paradise setting of Central America and the Caribbean, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little jealous of the colourful wildlife who call it home. You’ll find the wildlife to be as characterful and fascinating as you can imagine, whether that’s up among the leaves of palm tree jungles or the corals of its warm turquoise waters.

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The reason for me choosing this quote is because it mainly describes the rich and diverse marine life found in the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea, highlighting the experience of snorkeling in the waters around Isla de Providencia, Colombia. It emphasizes the beauty and variety of aquatic life, including fish species, turtles, octopuses, and starfish.

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"But the ocean is not doing well; marine biodiversity is in dramatic decline in more than 80% of European seas.

As top predators, seabirds are sentinels of ocean health and great indicators of changes within our marine ecosystems.

At BirdLife, we address existing and emerging threats to seabirds and other marine species by ensuring that sufficient space is dedicated for the protection and the recovery of nature at sea. We do this while supporting the sustainable development of the Blue Economy sectors."

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At BirdLife, we address existing and emerging threats to seabirds and other marine species.

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This quote talks about the decline in marine biodiversity in European seas, emphasizing the role of seabirds as indicators of ocean health. It also highlights BirdLife's efforts to protect and recover marine species while supporting sustainable development in Blue Economy sectors.

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This website tells me that the world's oceans play a crucial role in maintaining global systems that support life on Earth. Proper management of this vital resource is essential for humanity and combating climate change

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We exploit an ocean resource (whether animal, plant or other) when we profit from it so that we can improve our living conditions. Sustainable exploitation is that which satisfies the needs of the present without compromising those of the future generation.

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This article gives simpler facts about the ocean life such as the climate, problems in the ocean etc. It focuses mainly on the problems of the ocean globally

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Six Facts on Oceans, Life, and Livelihoods - Our World

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Covering more than 70% of the planet and producing at least 50% of earth’s oxygen, the ocean is of paramount importance in our daily choices about climate and consumption, and our efforts to protect natural resources.

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"Our ocean—all 140 million square miles of it—has a plastic pollution problem. This is the case in places where one might expect it—from the waters lapping at megacities to the world’s most polluted river deltas—but also in areas that might surprise people, such as the deepest trenches in the sea and the world’s most remote coastlines."

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Our Ocean Is Choking on Plastic-But It's a Problem We Can Solve

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Our ocean-all 140 million square miles of it-has a plastic pollution problem. This is the case in places where one might expect it-from the waters lapping at megacities to the world's most polluted river deltas-but also in areas that might surprise people, such as the deepest trenches in the sea and the world's most remote coastlines.

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Im pretty set on wanting to write about ocean life obviously but i want to mainly to mainly focus on plastics in the ocean. The reason i chose plastics in the ocean is to bring more awareness of the fact that there are lots of plastics in the ocean that hurt us, the environment and the marine animals.

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How do climate change and rising ocean temperatures impact the biodiversity and health of coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean?

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What are the effects of plastic pollution on the feeding behaviors and reproductive success of marine species in the Atlantic Ocean?

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Oceans are home to seahorses, dolphins, whales, corals, and many other living creatures.

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Oceans also provide jobs for more than 3 billion people who depend on marine biodiversity for their livelihood

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An estimated 50-80% of all life on earth is found under the ocean surface and the oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet.