The earth's continents and islands, atmosphere and oceans are not separate elements unto themselves, but are interlaced components of a finely-tuned global system. Whatever we do to the land affects the oceans; impacts to the oceans affect the atmosphere; changes to the atmosphere affect global weather patterns.

From the land, high levels of pesticides and toxins are being carried to the oceans, dramatically affecting shallow coastal zones, sea grass marine nursery areas, and coral reefs. Over sixty percent of the raw or treated sewage produced by man, rich in nitrogen, is being dumped into the oceans causing eutrophication in coastal waters. This overabundance of nutrients is causing algae blooms world-wide, impacting the marine food web. The red tide blooms (dinoflagellate) have caused shellfish poisoning in humans and mass mortality of clams.

More than half of the solid waste generated by man and being dumped into the oceans is highly durable plastics. Marine species become entangled in plastic debris and die from ingesting fish nets, plastic bags, cigarette filters and condoms. Many species die in drift nets. We consider our coastal zones a convenient alternate to landfills, dumping any waste, including radioactive materials and toxic dredged materials, into the unseen ocean depths.

In the oceans, warming by El Niño phenomena and warming by greenhouse gases affects biosystems globally. Many tropical and arctic marine species live at temperatures close to their upper lethal limits. Slow growing tropical coral reef systems are highly dependent on narrow temperature ranges. The variance of water temperatures of 2 to 4 degrees C above normal can cause death to vast marine biosystems. Sea turtle populations are affected as their sex is determined by the temperature at which their eggs are incubated. Over-fishing to the point of extinction in the name of sustainable yield has become an accepted fisheries management philosophy. Our lack of concern for the value of species is clearly demonstrated by the global slaughter of sharks. Shark finning slowly kills a shark for the sole bounty of the dorsal fin used in the preparation of a simple bowl of soup.

In the atmosphere, industrial pollution is depleting the ozone layer in the stratosphere, allowing increased levels of biologically-damaging UV-B radiation to reach the surface of the planet. Increased levels of UV-B can adversely affect many marine organisms and the entire marine food web. Phytoplankton populations are reduced, basic DNA of marine species can be damaged and fishery populations are diminished. Global warming caused by atmospheric pollution can also create changes in global weather patterns, causing increased severity of hurricanes and typhoons and altered rainfall patterns over continental land areas.

We are inexplicably creating the elements of slow death for our environment. The ability of our planet and its inhabitants to survive into the next millennium will depend on how we care for the air, land and sea, for the Earth as a whole is truly more valuable than the sum of the parts.

The oceans are critically important to the survival of the Earth and mankind, yet we treat the seas with complete and utter disregard. The oceans must not continue to be the global dumping ground for mankind's waste and must not be considered a food source without limit. We must gain a better understanding of the complex marine biosystems and protect these biosystems before we will be able to maintain sustainable yield fisheries.

To this end, the Oceanic Resource Foundation encourages your participation and support. Individuals interested in becoming a part of the solution by participating in field studies are needed and encouraged to contact us via form on our Contact Us page. Participants are needed for field excursions to Baja California to assist in marine turtle and coral reef protection.

Our continuing research studies and the development of future areas of research are also critically dependent upon your generosity. Planned projects include studies on coral bleaching, reef species biodiversity, new methods of eliminating ocean disposal of sewage, the long term effects of trawling in coastal zones, the continuing effects of DDT (and its metabolites, DDE and DDD) on waterfowl and wetland habitats, and effective and accurate measurements of fish stocks along with the development of new analytical models to improve fishery management.