So many people still believe that everything is fine underwater but our oceans are in trouble!
Most people just see the beautiful blue water surface and think it’s all peace, joy, pancakes and so act like it! Unfortunately, I have had different experiences over my 25 years of professional diving.
I can remember when we were kids, we were snorkeling and the sea was full of fish and coral. I saw so many different fish and colors, the underwater visibility was amazing every day.
As a child, I couldn’t get enough of this wonderful underwater world and would lay in the water for days, sometimes even at night, looking at everything. At night it was often enough light to see the bottom in the shallow water once your eyes got used to the darkness. Fear? No, I wasn’t afraid, maybe because I couldn’t assess it as a child back then!
12 years later, after I finished my conservative education in Germany, I went out into the wide world and did my training as a diving instructor. But even then I had a feeling that it was no longer the way I experienced it as a child. The water was often not as clear as I remembered, and the number of fish was not the same! At least that’s how it all seemed to me.
I figured that must have something to do with the fact that I’m an adult now and have a different perception, I’m at a different location and I’m diving instead of snorkeling.
So I put up with it for a few months, but then I thought, “Something’s wrong here.” However, when I didn’t see any improvement but rather a deterioration, I went on my way and started investigating. At that time the internet was still pretty bad and you were happy if you could send an email within half an hour!
So with research on the internet it wasn’t really possible and of course the articles and data weren’t as plentiful as they are today!
So I talked to researchers, fishermen and read books. And funnily enough everyone said the same thing!
“Yeah, 15 years ago everything was different when the nets were still completely full the water was clear and you could see from above where you had to throw the net in to catch the most fish because you could see them from the surface. Today we have to Drive 3 times the distance to catch the same amount of fish.”
Even with the natural scientists and the books, the answer was no better! The natural scientists gave proofed me with documents that they had taken fish counts and discovered a drastic reduction as well as the official catch numbers shot up. You could also see the grooves in the sand and the destruction of the fauna and flora of the bottom trawlers.
That was 25 years ago.
If a child jumps into the water today, it probably has the same experience and impressions as I had as a child, because a child perceives it as normal or beautiful today and because they have never seen what it looked like 25 years ago. I thought maybe it would be the same for me if I’d go back another 25 years further from my childhood?!
I don’t want to blame fishing as the only culprit as there are definitely other environmental issues contributing to the depletion of our marine life, to name a few.
- plastic garbage
- Discharge of untreated water
- Seismic testing involves blasting the sea floor with powerful air cannons to look for oil and gas
- ship accidents
- Military bomb testing
I have seen and experienced the destruction of reefs and marine life first hand over my last 25 years of diving. I have always paid for our marine conservation work out of my own pocket and documented it with films and pictures. Donations were never made or if so only in very small amounts. The estimated amount spent till now is over 40.000 €.
Many people are more interested in dogs and cats than our far more important oceans and I can see why!
Cats and dogs can be seen, petted and touched, they are cuddly and affectionate they “love” us but the problem is that they don’t contribute as our food or the environment, regulate the weather or produce a large part of the oxygen you breathe, compare to the oceans they do all of it!!!
Don’t get me wrong I love all animals!
I also see a big problem in the fact that no one wants to get their hands dirty to solve the actual problem (e.g. picking up garbage on the beach) but just sitting in front of their computer and trying with as little work and preferably in the shortest possible time, getting as rich as possible, thinking that someone else will do the clean up and that it doesn’t affect me directly anyway! But it does affects everyone! The ocean affects the weather, our food and our health!
If someone doesn’t understand how the sea is connected to all this, then have a look here!
If everyone would do just a little bit for our environment, the world would be a lot better.
I’ll tell you one thing!
Our Oceans are in trouble
We humans need healthy oceans to survive! No blue no green no life!
I have no idea in which dream world most people live, because when I always hear how great it is underwater and that everything is fine, just to avoid a discussion and not to scare off anyone because the truth is uncomfortable or to out yourself as a pessimist, these persons should open their eyes, wake up and go to the places that are affected and I promise you, you don’t have to go far to see them! I can make beautiful Pictures from a dead reef however the reef is still dead!
There are so many species that are important to healthy oceans but are already endangered or threatened with extinction. You often can’t even see them with the naked eye and that makes it so much harder to believe they’re in trouble, but that’s the big problem, they live underwater, they aren’t cuddly or pettable and they give us no visible “love” back, but if these species and thus the oceans don’t survive, humans won’t survive either! Most marine creatures are in dire need and need our help to ensure their survival.
Many think that Covid-19 has made the oceans better?! “Now that there’s so much less going on in the oceans…” is what I keep hearing, but unfortunately the opposite is the case. Due to the lack of or far fewer fishing controls due to Covid, which take place far too little even in the normal state, the fishermen have gained an even greater free hand.
Just a few numbers to think about!
it’s going to be difficult for a lot of people! 🙂
In the last 60 years, around 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish have already disappeared worldwide.
We are losing species as well as entire ecosystems, putting the ecological integrity of our oceans under stress and risking mass extinctions.
25% of all fish stocks in the world are either overfished or depleted.
Another 52% of all fish stocks are completely depleted, these are on the verge of overexploitation (maximum sustainable production level) and/or collapse.
This means that, collectively, almost 80% of the world’s fish stocks are fully or overexploited, depleted or in a state of collapse.
Humans have gotten way too strong with all the machines and fishing fleets we use to catch fish. The total number of fishing vessels worldwide in 2016 was estimated at about 4.6 million.
It is estimated that 1-2.7 trillion wild fish are caught worldwide each year. This estimates to a 90 million metric tons of fish caught per year. Unrecorded fish catch, such as illegally caught fish or fish caught as by-catch which will be discarded over board (by-catch is often 40% of a full net that cannot be used and is discarded again), is not included in this estimate.
Did you know that there are still government subsidies for fishing boats?
People are slowly rethinking, the way is long and tedious, but the more there are, the better and faster this way of thinking can be spread and accepted. Often people don’t know where to go to get such information, or even what to do about pollution! We have listed Ideas just further down.
Despite all the problems we have in our oceans with plastic, garbage pollution, acidification and overfishing, I still believe we can save and restore our precious oceans! We just have to work together!
However, the underwater work is hard, tedious and exhausting and we need all the help we can get! Every little gesture counts, It doesn’t matter how you help us, if you
- share our content
- join us as a Volunteer for Ocean Conservation
- Donate or
- Buy NFT images
We need
- More ocean cleaning teams
- More people becoming aware of the situation.
- More people to take care of our future source of food and oxygen, the oceans
- Donations
- Boats
- Fishery controls
- More natural scientists
So what is the solution to this problem and how can you as an individual contribute to the marine conservation program?
- Only buy fish once a week (not 5 times).
- Know where and how the fish was caught and if it was caught from sustainable resources? https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/search
- Switch to a more plant-based diet
- Lower your own standards. Maybe the smaller car will do too.
- Turn off the water while soaping in the shower.
- Turn off the lights that are not needed, Light pollution is another problem for many animals.
- Leave your car at home and go for a walk or bike instead.
- Don’t drive to the gym to sit on a bike!
- Don’t throw your trash overboard or out of the car onto the side of the road. it will eventually land in the oceans. Teach others!
- If you must use plastic, look at reusability.
- Bring your own bag to shop.
- Don’t eat shark fin soup
- Do not feed fish in the open sea.
- Check out our recommended documentaries
- Become a marine conservation program volunteer for marine life conservation and our marine conservation program.
- Join our ocean cleaning team
- Support us with a donation
- Become a Patreon
- Buy one of our NFT images
What do we do for the Marine Conservation Program?
- Teaching and raising awareness for our divers and guests!
- We sell our best of underwater pictures and promotional items; All proceeds go to our marine conservation projects and our ocean cleanup team! Visit our website and support us with your donation
- Building of artificial reefs, because they not only protect the fish from fishing nets, but fish also reproduce faster, and corals can attach themselves to the structures more easily.
- Wildlife and Turtle rehabilitation and rewilding
- Reforestation of corals broken off by anchors and/or humans.
- Coral propagation project
- Setting permanent buoys so that boats no longer anchor in the reef and thereby break off corals
- Underwater Cleanup dives
- Ocean surface garbage cleaning
- Beach cleanup
- We have just started a new shark protection project
- Fight to enforce fishing laws and prevent illegal fishing.
Image source: Siegmund Sasse
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