Marine Habitat Destruction
By: Davis, Noah, Anthony, Isaac
Overfishing
Over fishing-
Fisherman drag their fishing net along the ocean floor severely harming the ocean bottom. This method severely damages the organisms that live on it. This method when used too much doesn't only damage the ocean floor but it harms the food web and destroys many marine ecosystems.
Coral Reef Destruction
Over 80% of the coral reefs in southeast Asia are at risk.
Coral reefs are home to one quarter of the marine life in the ocean even only occupying 1% of the ocean floor.
they are very sensative and with the slightest disturbance can be destroyed.
They face a lot of threats like ocean acidification, warming waters, full destruction and unchecked tourism.
Mangrove Forest Destruction
Mangrove forests have gone on a decrease in the past years also.
This forests of trees on the coast are a huge key to the survival of marine ecosystems.
Mangrove forests play a huge part in protecting the coasts lines. These forests protect against hurricanes and are home to many marine species and organisms.
With the decrease of the habitats means that alot less marine organisms and coast lines won't thrive.
Oil Spills
When crude oil is spilled into the ecosystem the marine life has a huge decrease due to the toxic oil that has spilt into the ecosystem.
Thousands of fish and birds are killed due to the high levels of oil in the ocean.
As time goes on more and more oil is spread throughout the ocean therefore killing any marine life that it comes in touch with.
Tourism
Every day thousands of people crowd the beaches to sunbathe, swim, play, ect. With all those people comes with huge amounts of trash that gets left in the sea.
Millions of pieces of trash are daily floated out to sea from the tourists that forget to pick it up when they visit coastline and beaches.
All the trash that gets left out in the sea eventually gets eaten by the animals that swim these waters. Most of the time the fish and bird that eats or gets caught in the human waste dies.
People need to think about what they are doing to the ocean. Whatever they do leads right back the the health of the ocean
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (example)
In the year of 1989, a Exxon oil tanker grounded a reef as it moved on the seafloor. The tanker spilled about 11 million gallons of crude oil throughout the ocean. It filled hundreds of miles of the coastline very quickly. This spilled killed many varieties of marine life and still to this day there is still remains of oil found in the ecosystem.
Citations
"Marine Habitat Destruction -- National Geographic." National Geographic. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-marine-habitat-destruction/>.