Water is vital to life, and conserving drinking water is closely tied to the key to conserving ocean life. Water is necessary for health, growth, agriculture, hygiene, industry, transport and energy. The world is facing water shortages because of the way we have treated our planet and the wholesale abuse of our natural resources.
The Key to Conserving Ocean Life
Australian researcher and field biologist Graham Edgar from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, together with his colleagues recently undertook the “Reef Life Survey” project in which marine protected areas worldwide were surveyed.
The team recruited and trained more than one hundred of the most experienced and enthusiastic scuba divers how to take field surveys. The object of the survey was to examine why ocean life seemed to flourish in some of the protected areas and not in others.
The survey is one of the largest of its kind undertaken to date, and has resulted in the biggest consistent data set on global marine biodiversity to date.
While oceans cover 70% of the earth, less than 2% has been declared marine protected areas where aquatic life is supposed to be able to thrive without the pressures of human interference. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of these protected areas are what is termed “paper parks,†which means that although they have been declared protected areas on paper, minimal if any enforcement and/or protection is actually undertaken.
Many of the so-called protective areas are in a dire state due to:
- Overfishing due to no enforcement of the “no fishing†ban;
- Pollution due to runoff from populated areas; and
- The areas are too small to protect the various species of fish and other sea-life
Data recorded supports the study’s “NEOLI” (no take, enforced, old, large and isolated) findings across global borders and ecosystems, and it is hoped that this database and the information that it contains will assist marine managers to apply more of their time and budge to the things that will ultimately prove to be the key to conserving ocean life.
While drinking water is important, actually life-sustaining, we need to conserve all the water on earth to maintain the biodiversity. We sometimes forget that every creature on earth has a reason for being here, and that the more creatures that become extinct, the more life on earth will change for us all.
Water cooler service London and water dispensers from Living-Water.
Source:
