How to Protect and Save Marine Life

Every individual bears the responsibility of preserving our marine environment. What actions can you, as an individual, take to safeguard our natural resources? I urge everyone to join together in taking proactive steps and becoming catalysts for positive change. There is no time like the present to begin.

Different people in different places have different concerns when it comes to protecting and saving our marine environment. Not everyone fully understands that it is vital to have healthy oceans and seas or how human activities threaten our own marine life.

Some nations continue to use destructive methods on fishing, throwing plastic garbage in bodies of water and continue to kill sea creatures. Every living marine creatures as well as coral reefs needed a clean and poison-free environment, just like us.

They may not be cute or cuddly but they’re worth saving. Everyone is responsible for protecting the oceans and seas. What can you do as one person to help save our ocean and marine creatures living in it? One person has the power to change things. Even one can make a big difference.

Here are some ways to protect and save our marine environment:

• Stop Dynamite Fishing

This type of fishing uses explosive bombs that destroy fish habitats and coral reefs. Dynamite fishing is also called “Blast Fishing” because fishes were killed by shock waves from the blast. Not only a large numbers of fishes affected but also the microorganisms in the vicinity as well as the structures of coral reefs.

Did you know that it will take again hundreds of years to rebuild the physical structures of these coral reefs after it was destroyed to pieces by explosives? Sea creatures need these coral reefs; these are the underlying habitat that supports them. If this happens, it can lead to instant decline in fish species.

• Stop Cyanide Fishing

Cyanide fishing is also called “Poison Fishing”, another destructive method that uses poison to capture the fish. Sodium cyanide and bleach are the most common poison used by divers and fishers to squirt in reef crevices to stun fish, thus making it easy for them to catch.

• Avoid Overfishing

This occurs when fishes and other marine animals are harvested at rates faster than they can reproduce. Overfishing can lead to local extinction of fish species such as groupers or giant clams.

• Dispose Fishing Lines Responsibly

It will take about 600 years to degrade a monofilament line. Fishermen are advised to dispose these things responsibly. It can be a major threat to fishes and whales for they can be entangled by this web.

• Be Responsible on your Garbages and Wastes

Do not throw your plastics and wastes into the oceans or any bodies of water. Plastic can leach toxins into environment and can be hazardous to wildlife and living things. They stay for hundreds of years and become a poison to every sea creatures. Minimize the use of plastic in every way possible. When travelling, be aware not to just throw anything into the ocean.

• Help Take Care of the Ocean

Whether you just enjoy watching the waves or want to surf in the ocean, always bear in mind to clean up. If you happened to see plastics lying around, please pick it up and throw it into garbage cans. It’s just a small act but can really make a big difference. Explore and appreciate without destroying the marine life.

• Lessen the Carbon Footprint

You might probably ask, “What is the connection of lessening the carbon footprint to the marine environment?” We are experiencing global warming due to the things we love to overdo like overconsumption of energy. The effects of climate change leads to ocean acidification. The impact of this acidity to fishes, planktons and shellfish can be devastating and may lead to extinction.

Be energy-conscious and you might save one marine creature. Walk more, drive less, and conserve electricity and water, to name a few.

• Volunteer for Beach Clean-up

If there’s an organization in your place, it might be great if you can volunteer cleaning beaches. It will be a major step-up to save every living creatures living in our seas.

Our coral reefs contain over 4,000 species of fish as well as other microorganisms and invertebrates. It serves as their habitat to reproduce which in turn, gives us food. We need fish to maintain a healthy diet.

By abusing our marine environment such as throwing garbage and dynamite fishing, we are not only endangering our oceans but also poisoning ourselves. We catch the fish to eat but do we know if this fish had eaten a poison?

We are the ones to take responsibility to save the marine life as well as saving ourselves and our future. There are cases we were victimized by red tide, but whose fault is that?

Yes, those people who were greedy for money and uses illegal methods to harvest tons of fish to sell. In exchange, they’re poisoning and destroying the ocean and the people who might happen to eat the poisoned fish.

There is enough in this world for man’s need, but not for man’s greed. If we only knew how to take care and save our environment and natural resources by using it properly, then we could have it all.

Our marine life gives us what we need and all they’re asking is protection from the harmful poisons and shock waves that could kill and ruin their habitats. We need to feed them with clean environment to live and reproduce. In return, these natural resources will give us food needed by our body.

I’m calling for all to let us do our part and be the agent of change. There’s no better time to start than today.