Ocean Systems

Background Facts: More than half the U.S. populations live in coastal counties. The resident population in this area is expected to increase by 25 million people by 2015.

More than 180 million people visit the shore for recreation every year.

How do we depend on the oceans? Ocean Resources Website Ocean Resources Website

For Fun: the sports of swimming, fishing, scuba diving, boating, and surfing

For business: Pearls taken from oysters are used in jewelry, and shells and coral have been widely used as a source of building material.

Oil is retrieved from deep sea oil drilling.

The oceans also provide salt, bromine, and magnesium

For transportation: Ships go to and from one continent to another for leisure or to transport ___________. Cruise ships, sailboats and motor boats are available to transport people.

For food: People are turning to the oceans for their food supply either by direct consumption or indirectly by harvesting fish that is then processed for livestock feed

For Our Climate: The oceans drive climate and weather. They stabilize temperature because of their ability to absorb, store, and transport heat from the sun. Ocean water forms clouds that bring freshwater to the land as precipitation.

Ocean currents circulate the energy and water that regulate the Earth’s climate and weather.

For the Air We Breathe: Fifty to ninety% of the oxygen we breathe is released by photosynthetic phytoplankton in our oceans.

How do humans harm the ocean?

Pollution An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash (most of it plastic) end up in the world’s oceans each year. Discarded plastic fishing gear and other plastic marine debris kill more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles every year

60% of America’s water run-off flows to the Gulf, carrying fertilizers, motor oil, pesticides, and other waste, damaging the ocean.

Overfishing There are 250% more fishing boats than the oceans can realistically support. Each year, commercial fishers catch and discard more than 16 billion pounds of bycatch, (creatures that are caught unintentionally by fishing gear)

90% of large predatory fish populations – including cod, shark and blue fin tuna – have disappeared worldwide due to unsustainable fishing practices.

Climate Change Global climate changes causes warming that reduce ice in the polar regions and raises sea levels. 634 million people around the world are directly threatened by the rising sea levels caused by climate change.

Oil, Gas and Mining On June 17, 2010, an estimated 76,934,000 gallons of oil began leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. About 1 billion gallons of oil spill into the ocean each year outside of the gulf spill. Fish populations, migrating species, and organisms that feed and spawn in ocean areas can also be impacted by oil, gas and mining operations.

Deep sea mining strips or buries marine communities

Habitat destruction Tourism and infrastructure can damage, destroy, or bury sensitive habitats such as coral reefs, impacting the fish populations that rely on them.

Living Coral Reef Dead Coral Reef

Coastal development can damage important habitats such as salt marshes, and mangroves that provide natural buffers against storms.

Waste water and untreated sewage resulting from coastal development can lead to algal blooms which smother habitats and kill fish.