Our connection with the ocean is not going well. A report from 2021 found that the world’s oceans are very damaged. There are “dead zones” where there is not enough oxygen for life, which are growing. Also, around 90 percent of all marsh plant species and mangroves are in danger of dying out.
The things people do and the way we use money are the biggest problems for the ocean. This is because they cause climate change, overfishing, pollution, and destruction of the places where ocean animals live. Furthermore, we don’t know much about how big these dangers are, because countries only spend about 4% of their research and development money on studying the ocean.
We don’t know exactly how many different kinds of creatures live in the ocean, but scientists think there could be about 2. 2 million plants, animals, and fungi. This information comes from a study done in 2011. Scientists have found about one new kind of fish every week since 2015. The study from 2011 found that we need to have a new focus on finding and categorizing living things in order to discover all of them.
The UN is working on a plan to help take care of the oceans for the next 10 years. It started in 2021 and is making some progress. A new agreement called the ‘high seas treaty’ was signed in March. It is the first of its kind to protect oceans outside of countries’ borders. This is an important step in protecting a third of the Earth’s oceans and land by 2030.
The ocean covers most of the earth, but we still don’t know much about more than 80 percent of it. The agency that studies and gives information about the ocean and the weather is called NOAA. We know more about Mars’ surface than our own oceans. This is mainly because it’s really hard and costs a lot to explore the deep ocean, where the pressure can be as high as 1,000 bars – that’s like the weight of 50 jumbo jets.
compiled by Kerim SEYITGULYYEV,
student of the Institute of Engineering and
Transport Communications of Turkmenistan.
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