Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Threats to Life Below Water - Coggle Diagram
Threats to Life Below Water
Climate Change
From polar bears in the Arctic to marine turtles off the coast of Africa, our planet’s diversity of life is at risk from the changing climate. (WWF, –)
More frequent and intense drought, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans can directly harm animals, destroy the places they live, and wreak havoc on people’s livelihoods and communities. (WWF, –)
The oceans have been absorbing around 93 percent of the excess heat produced by greenhouse gas emissions since the 1970s. (UBS, 2019)
Due to the constant rise in temperature of ocean water, the fishes migrate to cooler regions to maintain their thermal environment. (Ocean Info, –)
Oceans are getting increasingly warmer, acidic and less oxygenated. (UBS, 2019)
Overfishing
When areas are overfished, essential predators and prey are removed from the food chain. (Ocean Info, –)
Subsidies, or support provided to the fishing industry to offset the costs of doing business, are another key driver of overfishing. Subsidies can lead to overcapacity of fishing vessels and skewing of production costs so that fishing operations continue when they would otherwise not make economic sense. (WWF, –)
Algae population grows out of control. (Ocean Info, –)
When larger marine animals, such as sharks and dolphins, are removed from the oceans, smaller fish can flourish. This often means that coral reefs suffer. (Ocean Info, –)
Illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing accounts for as much as 53 percent of the reported catch. (UBS, 2019)
Millions of people in largely developing, coastal communities depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood and half the world’s population relies on fish as a major source of protein. When fish disappear, so do jobs and coastal economies. (WWF, –)
Chemical Runoffs and Oil Developments
We can link them to low levels of oxygen in waters as well as deformation, cancer and reproductive failure. (UBS, 2019)
These chemicals affect marine species directly and humans indirectly. (UBS, 2019)
Oil and gas exploration and development causes disruption of migratory pathways, degradation of important animal habitats, and oil spills. (WWF, –)
These pollutants have long half-lives, accumulate over time and have largely unknown impacts. (USB, 2019)
These chemicals can poison fish and wildlife, contaminate food sources, and destroy the habitat that animals use for protective cover. (Science Oxygen, 2022)
Runoff picks up fertilizer, oil, pesticides, dirt, bacteria and other pollutants as it makes its way through storm drains and ditches – untreated – to our streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean. (Science Oxygen, 2022)
Plastic Pollution
Research indicates that plastic ingestion kills approximately 100 000 marine mammals and one million seabirds annually. (Ocean Info, –)
Plastics encourage the growth of dangerous plants in the ocean. (Ocean Info, –)
Plastic contamination of the marine food chain also has a trickle-down effect, which means it also negatively impacts fish and shellfish for human consumption. (UBS. 2019)
There are mountains of plastic in the sea as shown in this image. (Ocean Info, –)
An estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste go into the marine environment every year. (USB, 2019)
Some non-indigenous species consider the millions of plastic materials floating on water suitable habitats. (Ocean Info, –)
Sound Pollution
Every marine animal is impacted because they all use sound to hunt, find mates, reproduce, and communicate with their babies. (IFAW, 2020)
Ocean noise pollution comes from human activity like commercial shipping, seismic surveys, oil exploration, and military sonar. (IFAW, 2020)
Ocean noise dramatically changes an animal’s behavior. It causes stress and drives the animal out of its habitat. It reduces an animal’s ability to communicate, navigate, locate prey, avoid predators, and find mates. (IFAW, 2020)
If the animal is too close to the source of the sound, they panic and ascend too quickly to escape the noise. This has been known to cause decompression sickness, which can lead to tissue damage from gas bubble lesions. (Earth, 2022)
Whales and other marine mammals use sound to navigate, find mates, and find food in the often dark waters of the ocean. Seismic noises, like the air gun used by oil and gas companies to explore for oil offshore, can be deafening for these species. (WWF, –)
Noise pollution does not only decrease the communication range of marine mammals but it also causes them to change their vocal behaviour. For example, increased ship noise caused bottlenose dolphins to simplify their vocal calls. (Earth, 2022)
https://youtu.be/0f6xWoYfGj0
Introduction to Global Goal 14: Life Below Water
https://youtu.be/pMp2raQ3pwg
