Hands up who has been to visit the sea? It’s a fabulous place to have a holiday – especially if the sun is shining and it’s a nice day. It’s also lovely to look at the ocean on a cold stormy day – watch the waves break and the water change colour.
I guess we all take the sea for granted in many ways. Yet humans have been treating the sea very casually and horribly for years and years.
Did you know… waste matter from sewerage and agriculture gets dumped in the sea? This sometimes has revolting things in it that can cause dangerous types of sea plants to bloom in the water near the coast. When these blooms die and rot they use up all the oxygen in the water and then there isn’t any left for the fish. They call these areas “creeping dead zones”.
Just the name sounds incredibly scary.
Worse – a lot of other stuff also gets dumped into the ocean without people realizing it – all sorts of chemicals. Some of those chemicals are called POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants). These ghastly POPs don’t break down and disappear like lots of other chemicals do. They end up staying in the tissues of living organisms – like fish – that we eat. Yuk! Never mind the fact that these make the fish sick, they can also sometimes cause nasty illnesses in humans or even affect the way that we grow.
The oceans are huge and one would think that there are loads of fish swimming around just waiting to be caught and eaten. Well – this is not quite true anymore either. Sadly unsustainable fishing practices have, in some cases, left dangerously depleted fish stocks which have also jeopardized some marine ecosystems too.
Did you know… 312 million kilograms of seafood is consumed annually in South Africa? Sjoe!
This is why there are things like lists. We are all supposed to eat fish off the GREEN list only. The fish on the orange and red lists are endangered and they should not be caught. In fact it’s not okay to eat them if you go to a restaurant either because this creates a demand for them. Don’t do it!
Visit http://wwfsassi.co.za/sassi-list/ and see what you are allowed to eat and what is endangered. You’ll be horrified!
Let’s all take better care of our oceans.
Sibo.