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¶ … Threats to Ecosystem: Cause and Solution
There are various threats to the marine ecosystem. Three of the most common are:
(a) Pollution from point and nonpoint sources; (b) Overexploitation of marine stocks that can deplete marine animals; and (c) Global climactic and oceanographic events that contribute to sea level rise, coastal erosion, storm, and intensified sea temperature
Pollution
Pollution, as threat to the marine system, stems from point and non-point sources. A major source is plastic where plastic impacts the marine system by as much as 90-95% in some areas. Some areas of the ocean are completed y saturated by plastic (forming into piles called 'gyres'), and often mistaken for food by marine animals such as turtles, small feeders, and sea birds. A large percent of them have plastic in their guts causing their digestive systems to be blocked with the stuff and for them to starve. Plastic also acts as carrier for other pollutants extending the damage to marine life by killing and destructing much of the marine ecosystem.
Noise is another pollutant, since underground animals rely on sound for distance....
Man, however, by increased use of the sea is changing the underwater sound environment leaving certain animals, such as whales, stranded.
Other sources of pollution include climate change that makes the oceans more acidic; eutrophicaiton where chemical nutrients are being absorbed into the oceans resulting in tremendous parts of the ocean putrefying; industrial pollution from factories and mining sources serves as toxic food for marine animals (and, in turn, to humans); whilst pharmaceutical pollution harms reproduction and mortality of marine animals.
Remedies include monitoring ocean pollution that includes plastic (and general pollution), pharmaceutical contamination, discouraging eutrophicaiton, and decreasing sonar levels. (Save Our Seas Foundation)
2. Overexploitation of marine stocks
Overexploitation or over fishing may lead to resource depletion and with endangered and threatened species disappearing from our life.
Humans exploit more than 400 marine species -- far more than on land and far more than they need to - and modern fishing techniques have exacerbated tendency to over fish. The problem is…
References
CSIRO. Climate change effects on marine ecosystems report www.csiro.au/resources/ps2yd.html
Save Our Seas Foundation: Pollution saveourseas.com/threats/pollution
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) www.fao.org/sof/sofia/index_en.htm
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