Our Ocean obligation...

June 8th is World Oceans Day; The Ocean Conservancy "encourages everyone to explore, enjoy and protect our oceans"...a noble cause!

If you are lucky enough to be an orarian (coastal dweller) I hope you appreciate your circumstances; if you are lucky or rich enough to ever get into outer-space and you look down at The Earth, most of what you see will be the blue of water: over 70% of the planet's surface is covered by ocean and it is because of this that the Earth is sometimes called "the water planet" - less than three-tenths (maths was always a strong point) of our globe is covered with land.

To me, the ocean (any of them...or the sea!) has always been awe-inspring; just thinking about it evokes images of infinite beauty, a hidden strength both majestic, fierce and at times cruel; this fascination came about, I think, due to annual holidays on the Scilly Isles - the islands, or more accurately, The Bishop Rock Lighthouse, (first photo in the link, coincidentally taken on my birthday - click the arrow for a slideshow of the Scillies - btw they're not my pictures, thank you Lavaurs.com) is the last bit of land (or solid rock!) before reaching the American shore. The vast oceans have influenced mankind for time immemorial... no, even before that!... but imagine being among the first explorers who ventured out into the endless expanse of what must have been the 'dark' unknown. Apart from the majesty and mystery the ocean causes physical changes in our lives: it exchanges vast amounts of gases and aerosol particles with the atmosphere as well as heat and energy; because of these air-sea interactions a profound influence is exerted on the Earth's weather and climate patterns.

Did you know that more than 90% of the planet's living biomass is found in the ocean, or that the water, which the oceans contain, is 97% of the total water on earth...so, erm... that makes just 3% landlocked or river-bourne freshwater; these are amazing statistics. The World Ocean Network members have acknowledged as much by classing a new global 'country': the World Ocean; as I mentioned above every human being should be concerned by the Ocean and the W.O.N., as well as many other organisations worldwide, are consolidating commitment to the welfare of the Blue Planet...our future depends on it and so should mean wanting to ensure a viable future for subsequent generations. The W.O.N. Ocean passport:

Of course it’s all the same water, circulating around the globe – funnily enough there once WAS a 'World Ocean', named Panthalassa surrounding Pangaea… ,which was the rock and earth on the rock called Earth. See the eventual break-up in this animated image from USGS.

Greenpeace tell us that "fundamental changes need to be made in the way our oceans are managed. This means that we must act to make sure that human activities are sustainable, in other words that they meet human needs of current and future generations without causing harm to the environment. Accordingly, governments must set aside 40 percent of our oceans as marine reserves. Marine reserves can be defined as areas of the ocean in which the exploitation of all living resources is prevented, together with the exploitation of non-living resources such as sand and gravel and other minerals."...well, err... I agree with this too, although 40% seems fairly low.

Even the Spanish government seem to be on the right track and doing their bit, or at least in the Mediterranean.

The Ocean Channel, here, provides an interesting 'real-time' look at how the oceans are behaving, what they are doing.

[...Span's pervy sidetrack; I can see this becoming a regular feature. Needless to say, under the oceans' surface lies beauty, temptation and the unknown, the latter being called a Hula-Skirt Siphonophore; does that mean they suck?...]

S.O.

P.S. Thanks to Six for partly inspiring this post with his Freak Waves (23/05) and Four Boys (01/06) posts...oh, and to Jessica Alba in 'Into the Blue' although in this pic she seems to have lost "that" bikini...Ok, OK!..., I'd seen all the other films, that was the only reason I rented it!