Ecosystem, an ecological community together with its environment, functioning as a unit. In other words functioning as a team of sorts. One part fails and it disrupts the whole unit. Pollution, global warming(side-effect of pollution), commercial overhaul on fishing, and recreational boating are all causes of one part of that precious unit's failure. Most of society just sits back and lets it happen, "Doesn't effect us", they say-- well, they're wrong. In 2002 alone the Marine Industry generated $3,617,256,018,000 in overall revenue.(http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/data/industry/E44522.HTM)

A very small percentage of those people are fighting to protect the ocean and its life. We need stand up for what’s right. Coral reefs are dying, their becoming "bleached" because the algae can't get enough sun light. Without the algae fish will search for a new reef, predators and big fish that need parasite cleaning will search for those algae eating fish. This is a very urgent problem, considering that coral reefs helped supply $375 billion to the Marine Industry, not to mention biodiversity issues and "alien" or invasive fish.

This is a problem that needs to be fixed immediately, governments need to set regulations and people need to be more aware of their local marine habitat and be sure not to disrupt them. We can fix this, we can help the countless species from extinction, such as, sea turtles, the dugong, and the coelacanth are just examples. We have the technology to do so and the resources to do so, humanity just lacks the drive.

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Originally posted by clpo13:
Of course, if they hadn't overfished back the '80s, this problem wouldn't exist...

Thats one of my points, look where it got them, and its not like it helped that ecosystem. They should have regulations on any fishing area, new or old.

The interesting thing about crab fishing, though, is that it is extremely dangerous to humans due to the short season. Crab boats work for hours on end with no breaks for those few days to get enough crab.

Of course, if they hadn't overfished back the '80s, this problem wouldn't exist...

Now I'm not saying snuff out commercial fishing all together. I'm saying set regulations and restrictions, like the Alaskan Crab season, the government only lets it continue for a few days. The government can also create marine reserves, like national parks, th marine reserves can not be touch. The sea takes up 75% of the earth's surface, there's plenty of places to fish.

I wouldn't say the ocean needs our help, rather that the ocean in the vicinity of continental shelves needs our help.

Anyways, humans do have a tendency to muck things up, as we have with shallower parts of the ocean (such as the parts containing coral reefs and easily catchable fish), but the problems we create are very hard to make go away. People have been surviving off the ocean for eons. More recently, we just industrialized the whole deal. While it does have its bad effects on the environment, it creates thousands of jobs as well as providing food for people far from the ocean.

I think the best bet is to figure out some way to allow commercial fishing to continue but make it more sustainable and eco-friendly. I've no clue how to do that, though, since commercial fishing is rather harmful all on its own.

I would like some feed back, maybe just some opinions on the situation.