The Effects of Overfishing on Oceans - Essay Example

Integrated approach in coastal and ocean resources management must be applied. The tranquility of the sea was at late 1967 and was unhurriedly being disrupted by technological interventions, accelerating and multiplying uses, and a dynamic rivalry which poised to cross the threshold of man's precious seabed (United Nations, 1998). At that time, both dangers and promises were upheld while the dangers were abundant: nuclear submarines charting or documenting deep waters which were never before explored.

Supertankers ferrying oil starting Middle East to European going to other ports, then, they pass along congested straits and leaving at the rear tracking of oil spills. These resulted to the rising tensions between nations greater than conflicting claims to ocean regions and resources. Levenson in 1996 stated that ( p 100, par 2), marine resources are severely affected by a broad range of natural as well as human perturbations, such as pollutants from human effluents. Wastes can take place directly in marine waters, although it can also indirectly be transported to the sea by rivers.

Several studies can support that pollutants have originated from human activities and have resulted in an extensive diversity of impacts on water quality, marine organisms and sediment quality. Moreover, poisons or toxic chemicals introduced in coastal waters would jeopardize marine life. A toxic chemical (Seger, 2006) is a substance which can cause death or unfavorable sublethal effects in marine organisms exposed to it at certain level of concentration above a critical threshold. Many substances which are considered toxic at high levels may inhibit the life and growth of marine organisms.

Anthropogenic inputs of deadly substances can be absorbs safely in the oceans but the quantity introduced does not source concentrations to go beyond the threshold at which sub lethal toxicity exists. All the more, sub lethal or lethal toxicity entry concentrations are difficult to establish because they vary among substances, among species, and with other factors, like the physical stresses, synergistic as well as antagonistic effects of further chemical constituents. Usually, it is the marine organisms which bioaccumulate the majority of toxic essences.

Bioaccumulation occurs if and when, the concentration in the organism is elevated compare to the environmental concentration; however, the concentrations are in equilibrium. On the other hand, biomagnification takes place when the organism preserves all the toxic substance from food or environment that they have been exposed to and does not remove any of the substance. Lethal substances to marine life include carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens and can product lethal or sublethal effects. Similarly, Joint Ocean Commission Initiative ( 2009, par 2-6) reiterated that, decline of fish products will produce impacts on fishing communities and this in turn, poses a dramatic threat to people's significant cultural heritage, source of food, income, and