Currently about 25% of marine mammals are threatened to extinction. That is 32 of every 128 species. Meanwhile, many of them have already gone extinct. From the Blue Whale to the sea otter or the Hawksbill Sea Turtle, human Activities are causing harm to all of them.
Global warming, which is increasing at a rapid rate with time, is causing great damage to marine life. It leads to the rise of sea levels threatening the coastal population centers. It also damages coral reefs and mangroves and the Migration of marine species towards the cooler regions may occur due to high temperature of water. The fertilizers we use for our agriculture and crops flows all towards the sea which is extremely harmful for the fishes and many other Marine animals along with that, the waste from industries and factories may flow right into the water, spoiling it, making it more dirty, causing pollution and the death of many sea animals.
Overfishing and poaching of other sea animals for our personal use is a major factor that leads to their extinction. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 59.5 million people globally were employed as fishers. Due to overfishing, over 75% of the world's fishes have been fully exploited or depleted. There are also the invasive species that are brought into a land that they are not native with and can cause damage to the marine life native to that area. Plastic wastes cause a huge loss of marine life. Seabirds and Sea Turtles may ingest the plastic which can clog their stomachs and they may starve to death. About 13 million metric tons of plastic gets disposed of in the ocean each year. Marine animals may ingest the plastic debris and suffocate. Plastic waste also accelerates the growth of pathogens in the ocean. Noise pollution may harm some animals as well. Some fishes tend to move away from sound and noise pollution may cause behavioral changes in them which is quite harmful. They might even migrate, due to the tremendous presence of noise.
Whatever the cause of this problem is, it is really important that we try our best to conserve and protect marine life and its diversity. We can do that by reducing pollution, not dumping all of our waste into the water, disposing of plastic in a proper manner and trying our best from our side to reduce global warming and do something nice for nature and the environment.
Filza Javed
The Carbon Newsprint
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