Tomislav Skračić, MA Undergraduate English Course for MARITIME MANAGERS 5th Semester Essential reading: T. Skračić, Waypoint – English Textbook for Maritime Students, Faculty of Maritime Studies, Split 2010, Units T. Skračić, Waypoint – English Textbook for Maritime Students, Faculty of Maritime Studies, Split 2010, Units T. Trappe & G. Tullis, Intelligent Business, Longman 2005, Units T. Trappe & G. Tullis, Intelligent Business, Longman 2005, Units 12-14

Direct threats. There are destructive practises that seriously modify habitats and marine systems. A dramatic example of harmful exploitation of marine resources is the harvest of fishes using explosives. A single blast can cause chronic impacts over many years, decimate thousands of years of cumulative sea bed development and can stop any regeneration of the sea bed in the vicinity of the explosion.

The dragging of heavy gear such as trawls over soft sea bed destroys the sea life on the sea bed and disrupts ecological processes that are critical to maintaining marine productivity and diversity.

Overexploitation is another destructive practise. Our capacity to find and harvest living marine resources has now exceeded the natural capacity of coastal and offshore ecosystems to restock them.

Finally, by far the most menacing direct impact that humans have exerted on the marine ecosystem has been the urbanisation of coastal areas. Binhai, China – coastal urbanisation Source: Earth-Human-Expansion-and-Its-Impact

Urban agglomerations by size class and inland or coastal location, 2011 Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division: World Urbanization Prospects, the 2011 Revision. New York 2012

Indirect threats. Indirect impacts of commercial exploitation include   loading of the system with discards, including fish- processing waste and by-catch,   habitat alteration, loss or degradation of nursery areas,   lowered water quality in terms of chronic pollution by fisheries operations or single pulse pollution in catastrophic accidents.

Indirect threats. There are myriad ways that humans indirectly impact marine biological diversity and the ecosystems that sustain it.   Pollutant release,   runoff of toxics,   excessive fertilisation of nearshore waters from agricultural runoff,   release of alien species,   changes in hydrology in river systems... all cause dramatic changes to the ecology of nearshore and, in some cases, offshore ecosystems.

1. Answer the following questions: a) a)Why are marine ecosystems under enormous threats? b) b)Name some factors that contribute to continued environmental degradation. c) c)State a few warning signs of negative impacts on the marine system. d) d)What are marine resources? e) e)What is the first sign of overexploitation of marine resources?

1. Answer the following questions: f) f)Name some destructive practices that cause habitat alteration. g) g)What is the most menacing direct impact that humans have exerted on the marine ecosystem? h) h)Explain some of the indirect threats to marine ecosystems.

INTRODUCTION OF ALIEN OR EXOTIC SPECIES There are many examples of the ecological catastrophes wreaked ________ alien species. San Francisco Bay ________ the western United States has been receiving alien marine species ________ the rate of one every fourteen days; many of these organisms survive, settle and eventually displace other native species. Another example can be found ________ northern Africa, where the opening of the Suez Canal led ________ the spread of more than 250 species from the Red Sea ________ the Mediterranean. 2. Use the following prepositions to complete the text: at, at, at, by, in, in, in, to, to, to.

Some of these introduced species, like the Red Sea jellyfish, have displaced local and commercially important species, depressed fish catches, clogged intake pipes of coastal power plants and impacted tourism ________ Mediterranean beaches. ________ the Black Sea, ballast- borne introduction of the ctenophore Cnemiopsis from the eastern U.S. has caused the decline and population extirpation of ________ least 28 commercially important species of fish, and has contributed ________ the "desertification" of a once productive and economically important sea. 2. Use the following prepositions to complete the text: at, at, at, by, in, in, in, to, to, to.

3. Discussion: In your opinion, what is the most serious threat to marine ecosystems in the Adriatic? What can we do about it in terms of prevention and repression? 4. Choose some of the following structures and write sentences of your own: long-term (adj.), in the long term, threatened / under threats, address symptoms / threats, efficient tool, contribute to, negative impacts on, put at risk, to date, aimed at, committed to