World Oceans Day.

At the earth summit in 2002, Canada explained the concept of “World Ocean day” for the very first time. The concept is very similar to many other days which are declared to raise awareness on a particular problem or topic in general. As the name says this day, mostly the 8th of June was declared to be the “World Oceans Day” to raise awareness of the global situation of our oceans. The pollution of the oceans, the biggest ecosystem on earth, isn’t a new topic. For years activists, organizations and companies have been raising awareness about how much trash was put into the ocean. This pollution with a variety of different kinds of trash also causes other problems and makes it more difficult to clean the oceans up. As a reminder, World Oceans Day should remind everyone which problems we are facing and which consequences those problems can have for every human on earth.

The current situation of the oceans - facing various problems The thought that rubbish just goes into the ocean, stays there, and doesn't influence humans, animals and ecosystems is a huge mistake, most of us make, because we can’t imagine what exactly happens and don’t know which problems are rushing in our direction. Firstly the main problem is that meanwhile, it’s a usual process for companies to throw non-recyclable rubbish into the ocean to save money they would have to invest in eco-friendly decomposition processes. In this way, 10 million tons of plastic get disposed into the oceans every year. This problem also causes a big uncertainty about how much trash gets into the oceans, because no one can prove all disposal actions, because the companies aren’t obliged to report them.

Secondly, the rubbish which is in the ocean leads into a big problem for every ecosystem in the oceans, whether that is the great barrier reef in Australia or the Gulf of Mexico because plants and water animals (flora and fauna of the seas) are getting harmed by polluted food they eat or trash that goes into their body. For example in the North Sea (north Europe), 94% of the found water animals had plastic trash in their bodies, which is a terrible fact, but probably this is just the beginning. In 2015 322 million tons of synthetic material were produced worldwide and at the moment ca. 18.000 plastic parts are located at every single square kilometer of the water surface. That means, if we won’t stop producing that much synthetic material and polluting the oceans with it, we are risking the lives of even the existence of many species and their ecosystem. This would be such a big change for the whole environment on earth, that the consequences aren’t researched yet.

Thirdly, the constant moving of the oceans (meaning the water) spreads the rubbish in every direction, so it's much more difficult to find and collect the trash. Furthermore, a lot of trash sinks to the ground of our oceans where we can’t collect them, but they are still damaging the ecosystem. This also leads to the problem that local pollution for sure has global consequences that aren’t predictable. Fourthly the decay of plastic products runs very slowly, for example, a plastic bag takes 10 to 20 years to decay completely. Another problem is the toxic fabrics that are going into the ocean when plastic decays because they can negatively influence the health of animals.

The biggest problem is called “international waters” If you think about why we aren't going to stop polluting the oceans, you won’t find a sensible answer, but the answer, as obvious and unexpected as it seems, is very easy. The oceans are “international waters” which means they didn’t belong to any country. The countries with borders at the seas are only claiming a small part near their country as national territory. From this follows that no one is responsible for the situation of the oceans, which also means that no country or company has to regulate their pollution or even stop it completely. Only organizations that are composed of many countries like the United Nations can conclude contracts about how to deal with the pollution of the oceans. Those processes mostly are very long and in the end, don’t change relevant factors.

The future of the oceans - what we all have to do It’s important to know that the oceans are much more important than most of us think they are, even when you know a lot. The importance of the oceans doesn't mean only the good conditions for ecosystems, animals, humans, and other things that are depending on the oceans, it goes far deeper. We haven’t explored enough of the oceans to be sure about the consequences of global pollution. As an example you can take climate change, it’s probably a huge problem, but we know far too little about it. So to prevent the situation of the oceans from becoming the same, we should raise more awareness about this early on instead of starting the solution process way too late. So, Nations, organizations, and companies of the world come and work together, to create concepts with solutions that will help our oceans to recover from human-made pollution.

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