Our ocean. It gives us beauty, fun, food, jobs, medicine, air, weather patterns, a place to think. In return, we give it pollution, beach erosion, and death to its inhabitants. But with our normal daily activities we can reverse this destructive human trend:
1) Lessen pollution by conserving water and guarding against oil and antifreeze running into the ocean. (The ocean gets more oil from car leaks than from large tanker spills.)
2) Avoid litter–cigarette butts tossed onto the street end up in the ocean, killing sea-life.
3) Ask questions before buying seafood. Was it farmed, thus depending on wild fish as its food source? Where was it farmed—inland, meaning that waste didn’t flow into the ocean? If wild, was it caught in such a way that didn’t also catch turtles, dolphins, and other life that was simply discarded? (For help, print a pocket guide from http://www.seafoodwatch.org/-/m/sfw/pdf/guides/mba-seafoodwatch-west-coast-guide.pdf?la=en.)
It’s not too late—yet—to start taking better care of our wonderful, watery friend.