BACK on Christmas Eve, 1968, 35-year-old American astronaut and engineer named William Anders took an iconic photograph of planet Earth titled Earthrise, as he looked through a small frosty window of Apollo 8 – the first spacecraft to leave Earth’s gravity and orbit the moon.
From 380,000 kilometres away, our spectacular planet appeared as a vulnerable, mostly blue sphere – vividly illustrating the oceans’ size and importance – as they cover some 70 per cent of the planet we call home.
There is simply no exaggerating the importance of the oceans to earth’s overall ecological balance. Their health affects the health of all terrestrial life. Yet the oceans’ natural resilience has been seriously compromised. Pollution, habitat loss and overfishing are dangerous threats on their own. But when these factors converge, they can destroy marine ecosystems.
As World Oceans Day is celebrated today, there’s a need to create a new consciousness about our responsibility to the ocean and the extraordinary connection of the ocean to everything we do and need to do on Earth itself.
Together we can do something. As Japanese writer Rynosuke Akutagawa wrote: “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
RAVINDER KAUR
Wildlife biologist and founder of Gaia
WHEN I was a child, the six of us would cram into a Datsun 120Y and my father would drive us to Port Dickson. I was determined to spend every possible second at the beach in the water.
As mum laid out the mat and the food for a picnic, I dashed towards the crystal clear sea water. I’d play in the water with my siblings until hunger drove me out and I gravitated towards the picnic mat.
Biting into the sardine sandwich with my eyes fixated on the ocean, I could taste the saltiness of the sea on my lips. Later at night, my dad would light a hurricane oil lamp. In the flickering light, I’d get excited seeing glimpses of crabs dashing around us, their shadows dancing on the sand and confusing my eyes.
That was 25 years ago and sadly, Port Dickson’s natural environment has deteriorated over the years.
When we think about oxygen producers, we tend to picture large majestic trees in the forests. But what many are unaware of is that the ocean produces more than 50 per cent of the atmosphere’s oxygen, thanks to tiny little creatures called phytoplankton.
These creatures make their own food through photosynthesis and release oxygen. This is just one of the many useful services carried out by the ocean and yet it’s more often than not taken for granted and yet we persist in exploiting and using this expanse of water as our dumping grounds.
I hope we will come to terms with our own fragility. We simply cannot survive without clean air, clean water and food. We must change our ways and take urgent steps to protect the ocean, rather than destroying it and inevitably causing our very own extinction.
As the saying goes: “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realise that you cannot eat money.”
MARK NG MENG YONG
Vice-President,
Wild Bird Club of Malaysia
THE oceans, seas and straits may only be bodies of salt water to many. However, these bodies of water meant many different things to many species of animals as well as mankind. It determines how migrating birds fly or roost. It allows different habitats to be formed along the coastal regions.
One example is the East Asian Australasian Flyway, which a group of water birds called waders use for their migration between countries in the north and the south of the equator.
The coastal regions of Peninsula Malaysia from Kedah southwards to Selangor are important feeding and roosting grounds for these birds. It’s because the vast mudflats deposited by the waters of the Straits of Melaka have created a good feeding ground for the birds and the surrounding mangrove swamps provide them safe roosting sites as well.
Another example of the effect of these bodies of waters is the expanse of the water. The Straits of Melaka represents a channel of water between Peninsula Malaysia and Sumatra. The stretch between Tanjung Tuan in Port Dickson, Malaysia and Pulau Rupat, Indonesia represents the narrowest stretch of the straits. It is here that the heavier migrating raptors like the Oriental Honey Buzzards choose to cross on their annual migration.
The mangrove swamps near salt water also provide a safe haven for fish fries to grow and develop before venturing into the seas and oceans. It is a nursery for numerous species of fish, molluscs, crustaceans etc.
FAIRUL JAMAL HISNE
Environmental Consultant/Marine biologist/Co-founder and Vice-Chairperson
The MareCet Research Organsation
The ocean provides us with numerous resources, used as a mean of transportation, and helps regulate our world’s climate. Yet, we tend to forget about it. There has been so much talk about the issues of climate change, habitat loss, and wildlife extinction lately but very rarely do these discussions include the plight of the ocean.
It is almost as if the species found in the watery depths of the oceans are not really wildlife, and that the coral reefs and seagrass beds are not really habitats worth conserving.
Our own laws exclude them from other wildlife such as tigers and rhinos, or differentiate them from other habitats such as forests and swamps. Our society looks at the ocean as an infinite resource to be exploited indefinitely and indiscriminately. Maybe managing the ocean is not as clear-cut as managing land areas.
Maybe we are overawed by the expanse of the ocean that we feel we can never fully damage it. Maybe it’s just a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. Whatever it is, we need to start doing better. We need to start acknowledging that we must pay more attention to our ocean environment.
This World Oceans Day, my hope is for people to start thinking beyond our immediate surroundings, and to start looking at the larger picture. We must think about how our actions can affect the ocean and all that it contains.
What would the world be without a healthy ocean? What would that look like? We may be already be experiencing it right now.
Let’s work together. After all, as the World Oceans Day hashtag says: #TogetherWeCan protect and restore our ocean.
YEAP CHIN AIK
Senior Conservation Officer/Project Manager
Malaysian Nature Society
CAPTAIN Nathan Bridger once said “The 21st century. Mankind has colonised the last region on earth, the ocean. As captain of the seaQuest and its crew, we are its guardians. For beneath the surface, lies the future.”
When I was growing up in the 1990s, I would land myself in front of the telly without fail and with excitement to see where Captain Bridger and his crew take viewers and what crisis or discoveries they will uncover.
The drama seaQuest DSV ( deep submergence vehicle) lasted only three seasons but it left deep impression on me – on how Man should always be the guardians of Mother Nature and the splendour and mysteries of our ocean. Plus I sort of wanted to join the crew too!
In retrospect, the show was almost prophetic when it was written as the storyline began in 2018 after Man has exhausted almost all natural resources on land. The ocean floor was our only hope. Man messed up big time then, in the show.
The reality today isn’t so far from the show. Many global reports, scientific publications, documentaries and even David Attenborough himself have highlighted how our oceans are being exploited to the point of irreversible damage and the utmost need to care for and protect Earth’s last frontier. Oceans and seas have nourished mankind and civilization for over a millennia.
Our oceans have been patient with mankind for longer than we deserve. That patience is running thin and will be unforgiving. The threat our oceans face today is man-made. Thus, Man must be the solution.
This year’s World Oceans Day theme “Gender and the Ocean” is timely. Captain Nathan Bridger needs every man and woman to join his crew in the hopes of bringing a lasting change in how we view, utilise and protect our oceans. This is my hope, a hope to see us all do something to keep our oceans healthy. And in doing so, our oceans will nurture mankind for another millennia.
HYMEIR KAMARUDIN
Conservationist and CEO
Earthlodge Malaysia
MANY people do love the ocean but they do not see it other than as part of larger scenery or landscape. They don’t see it for the fish that we are taking out for consumption and depleting fish stocks. Most times, their connection to the ocean is limited to that occasional picnic, a swim or just sitting by the coast to enjoy the scenery.
They don’t see the sediments and other pollutants that we are pouring into the ocean. They don’t realise that the ocean is dying. It seems that many people are disconnected from the sea.
People should take an active interest in seeing how their lives impact the ocean and take measures to minimise this impact. The ocean may seem vast and resilient. It covers 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. But there are seven billion of us!
I’d like to see more extensive awareness programmes to better acquaint people with the marine world. I know much is being done but I still feel more needs to be done. Lastly, many ocean-related activities like fishing, kayaking and snorkeling should include some conservation messages.
DR. LOUISA PONNAMPALAM
Marine Biologist/Co-founder and Chairperson
The MareCet Research Organsation
MARINE conservation was never, but certainly now, should no longer be just "the ocean-hugger's obsession" or responsibility, as many may perceive. It is everyone's duty to do our blue planet due diligence, and to do it because it is our life support system, and it is in dire condition.
While we (rightfully) worry about tigers, rhinos and elephants going extinct, so many marine species are on that same highway of no return.
Not only is this impacting charismatic species such as dugongs, porpoises, whales, sharks and rays, but we are seeing the annihilation of one of Earth's major food resources that feeds millions around the globe - seafood.
We are taking too much biodiversity out of the oceans, and putting too much pollutants into them, and we don't seem to care enough that this is a huge problem that is going to (if it hasn't already) come back to cause us all sorts of inconveniences.
I simply cannot imagine living in a world without oceans that contain healthy populations of marine life and ecosystems. Far from our shores, in Baja California, we have the vaquita, a small species of porpoise, clinging on to the last threads of existence.
Here on our Malaysian shores, we've already lost our leatherback turtles, and if continued to be left unchecked, our dugongs will soon join wildlife heaven too. I'm determined not to let that happen under my watch, but, what's needed is much better governance of our seas and enforcement of the laws.
Come on, Malaysia, the time was yesterday and the day before, but seeing as how we can't turn back time, then it is absolutely now that we need to take marine conservation most seriously.
We need to replenish our wild seafood stocks, we need to pump in more budget for the protection of important marine habitats and we must have the political will to put marine conservation as one of our biggest priorities.
I hope, for our own sakes, that we can self-police our everyday lifestyle and consumption choices, that we will exercise more restraint in the things we use, in the things we eat and that regardless of where we live, we will remind ourselves daily how important the oceans are to our survival.
It’s also my hope that marine conservation practitioners and organisations are given more support in the important work that we do.
Stop perceiving our work as being less significant than any other kind of corporate work, only worthy of a few peanuts.
It is my aspiration that more people (and people in power) will join the likes of me and my peers in keeping our oceans alive in whatever way that is required, lest we're content with swimming in seas full of solid waste, eating polluted seafood or no seafood to eat at all, picnicking on beaches accompanied by trash, having our homes flooded, and seeing marine animals wash ashore dead. And remember the dugongs and their kind. They deserve better.