Conservation of Aquatic Life

The Mission:

In today’s world, water pollution has become a major concern for all living beings. It is no different for aquatic life either, If the rate of water pollution is not reduced or stopped many of the marine species would become endangered or become extinct. Through this activity, students will be able to understand the harmful effects of water pollution on marine plants and animals.

Concepts to understand:

Introduction:

Modern day human activities are often resulting in harm to environment, surrounding eco system and biodiversity. This is not just limited to the pollution on land and air, but also extends to water pollution affecting aquatic life. One major reason contributing to this is water pollution. Water pollution occurs when harmful chemicals, man made harmful substances pollute or mix with the water bodies like rivers, streams, lake, ocean and other water bodies. Due to this the water becomes harmful for aquatic animals like fish, frogs, sharks, corals, marine mammals like seals etc. Even marine plants are also affected by water pollution. Hence, it is important to contain water pollution.

2.1 Water Pollution due to Human activities

Following are the harmful human activities in the ocean that pose threat to the aquatic life:

a) Fishing:

Relying on many varieties of fish, crabs, turtles, squids, octopus, etc. for food has increased the rate of fishing in the oceans and fresh water. Also, some varieties of snakes, fishes, turtles are sold for the decorative purposes in house. This resulted in increase of fishing activities. As a result, the marine ecosystem is disturbed and lot of varieties of aquatic animals face the threat of extinction.

b) Extraction of petroleum from oceanic floor:

Petroleum is one of the most precious resources used in transportation, energy production and cosmetic production. It is extracted from land as well as oceanic floor. Petroleum is found in form of crude oil at the bottom of oceans. Due to penetration at the depth of oceanic floor, crude oil mixes with the water and sticks to the gills of fishes or on the leaves of aquatic fauna. As a result, fishes cannot breathe oxygen from the water and die. Also, the photosynthetic ability of the aquatic plants is reduced due to crude oil sticking on them or floating on the surface.

c) Sewage discharge in oceans:

Sewage contains human faeces, and various other types of waste. Harmful bacteria are found in human sewage. Sewers from metropolitan cities discharge sewage into oceans. This pollutes oceans and add harmful bacteria into water. These bacteria enter food chain of fishes and makes them ill. If such fishes are consumed as food, it can make us ill too.

d) Plastic pollution in oceans:

Plastic is a non-degradable waste. It does not decay over long period of time. Plastic is dumped in the ocean. It may get torn into small pieces and gets engulfed by fishes, amphibians and other aquatic animals. Engulfed plastic pieces by fishes can cause variety of diseases and may even result in death. In many cases, snakes, sea gulfs, turtles, crabs are found to be strangled in the plastic containers and die due to suffocation.

e) Water sports and transportation:

Large container ships that travel in the oceans. Due to their huge size often met in accident with large fishes like dolphins, sharks, whales, etc. Due to such accidents, whales and sharks suffer severe injuries and bleed till death. Also, accidental oil spills in such accident affects the oceanic flora and fauna.

f) Nuclear waste disposal:

In many countries, the radioactive nuclear waste is disposed at the bottom of the oceanic floor in enclosed container. Due to high pressure at the bottom of the oceans, these containers can accidently release radioactive waste that can cause disease to aquatic ecosystem.

These activities should be reduced or stopped such that, we can minimise the threat to the aquatic eco system.

2.2 Endangered Aquatic Animals

Oceans and freshwater resources like lake, rivers, etc. are filled with variety of aquatic plants and animals. Varies types of fishes, snakes, amphibians, etc. are found on oceans and rivers. Fishing activities for consumption of food, oil, and other purposes have pushed several species of fishes, amphibians on the verge of extinction.

Following is the list of endangered aquatic animals and the reason for their extinction:

2.3 Need for conservation of aquatic flora and fauna.

Ocean is the largest ecosystem in the world. It helps in regulating earth’s temperature and generates half of the oxygen that we breathe. Oceans are greatest absorber of carbon dioxide. This helping us to reduce the effects of global warming. It also provides us food. It is not immune to the harmful human activities. We now have understood the devastating effects of human activities on the oceanic ecosystem.

In order to protect the harmony of the oceanic ecosystem and our ecosystem we need to control the unregulated human activities.

In many countries, recreational activities are encouraged to protect and preserve the oceanic ecosystem. For example, the coral reef near coast of New Zealand was once on the verge of extinction due to water pollution. This had result in decrease in population of fishes, dolphins, turtles, and crabs. With the strict government regulation, regular cleaning activities and support of volunteers the artificial coral reef was created that can support the growth of natural coral reef and can restore the aquatic ecosystem to its natural shape.

Blue parks are created in many areas of world for tourist to visit under water ecosystem keeping interaction minimum. This helps us to understand and appreciate the delicate equilibrium of marine ecosystem.