As of December last year, June 8th is now officially World Oceans Day as per the recommendation of the United Nations. It is a day to celebrate our oceans, to remember how incredibly important they are to the survival our planet and a day to try and provoke change in an effort to help protect and nurture them.
Our ocean covers 71% of our planet and it regulates our climate so us weak humans are not fried by extreme temperatures or suffocated by carbon dioxide. All terrestrial life; from trees, to earthworms, to elephants; only accounts for 20% of known life on this planet. Check that… 80% of all life on this planet is in our oceans. Due to the fact that we can only see the surface of the ocean and it generally appears to be rather empty and uninhabited, we tend to think of it as this void in which a few sharks, whales and dolphins endless swim about in. Instead, it is the most dominant feature on this planet and one which we probably know the least about. Scientists are still continually finding both new forms of marine life and new environments in which life is sustained. As an example, scientists just found a type of sea slug that seems to blur the lines between plant and animal. Elysia chlorotica both eats algae, like an animal, but can also convert sunlight into energy via photosynthesis, like a plant. This has recently been discovered, despite the fact that it doesn’t generally diver deeper than 0.5m and lives on one of the most populated coasts on earth (The eastern seaboard of the US). This is just one example of how little we know about our easily accessible coastal oceans, let alone how little we know the deep ocean!
As BP’s Deepwater Horizon continues to pump up 40 000 barrels of oil in the Gulf each day, and the US Government and BP scramble to figure out how to stop the flow, we should all stop to think about our oceans. We are playing an extremely high stakes game of Russian roulette, one with financial benefits but one astronomically devastating downfalls. According to Surfrider representatives in the Gulf, the surface slick should be by far the least of our concerns. The deeper water plumes, that are now just beginning to receive media attention, are far more widespread and dangerous. Once the oil is treated with a flocculent, it actually becomes 4X more toxic than either the flocculent or oil was originally. Seals, turtles and other marine life are washing up on beaches with no apparent oil damage but have been killed by these toxic deep water oil/flocculent plumes. No-one knows the extent of the sub-surface damage to marine fauna and flora, because we do not even know what all the fauna and flora inhabit that zone. This whole situation gives a stark reminder of how we abuse of oceanic “resources” and how little control we have over the whole game.
But enough ranting for one day, World Oceans Day is also a day to celebrate our oceans, beaches and coastlines. So grab your surfboard/boogie board/skim board/umbrella and head down to your local beach. Drop by the aquarium and be amazed by the splendor and diversity in our oceans. Help out with a beach clean-up. Enjoy the day, smile and pick up some garbage off the streets on our way home…
Quick Update: Khulula is hanging out in San Diego while Hugh and I are back home in Canada, scheming and planning for our trip out to Hawaii beginning next week. Lots coming soon…