The Greatest Threat to Marine Animals
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You might have more questions about marine animals or life now that you’ve seen Seaspiracy. We sought to learn more about marine species, why people are the biggest threat to their survival, and what we can do to help by consulting academic resources and taking into account the lived experiences of people who make up the majority of the world’s population.
What Kinds of Marine Animals Are There?
Animals that live in the sea are known as marine animals. Each of the numerous microscopic building blocks that make up an animal, called cells, has a nucleus. For food, marine animals consume different plants or creatures. Although some, like coral, may become fixed in one spot, they can travel from one area to another. Animals are aware of their surroundings and can react accordingly. They can also procreate and bear children.
What Animals Are Considered “Marine Animals”?
Crustaceans, shellfish, and cephalopods
Cephalopods are aquatic creatures that dwell in the ocean. They have tentacles and are mollusks. These creatures include cuttlefish, squids, and octopuses. Cephalopods have arms that can hold and move objects in addition to having a head, a big brain, eyes, and thick skin. Cephalopods consume other animals as food, making them carnivores.
They are the most intelligent, the fastest-moving, and the largest of any animals without backbones, according to the Hutchinson Pocket Dictionary of Biology. Mollusks are described as “soft-bodied animals with a muscular “foot” in the Dictionary of Zoo Biology and Animal Management. Snails and slugs are a few examples of non-marine mollusks.
Sea creatures called crustaceans include crabs, lobsters, and shrimp. Arthropods, which include crustaceans, are creatures with segmented bodies and tough exteriors. Typically, crustaceans have a head with eyes, a mouth, and antennae, which are sensory organs. They have two antennae on each part of their body, which helps them eat, feel, swim, walk, and grab things. Gills are used by crustaceans to take in oxygen. While most crustaceans are marine creatures, some also dwell in freshwater and on land.
Humans frequently eat shellfish, one type of marine animal. They lack a backbone and reside in the sea. Crustaceans and mollusks are considered shellfish under English and Welsh law. Besides these, abalone, clams, mussels, scallops, and oysters are also examples of marine mollusks. Crayfish and prawns are examples of crustaceans.
Invertebrates and corals
A sea animal without a backbone is called a coral. Their social structures are made up of tube-shaped organisms called polyps that stick to one place. Polyps are shielded by skeletons that are “jelly-like, horny, or stony.” Coral can be black, red, or white. They typically reside in warm waters close to the land’s margins. A coral reef is made when new polyps build on the remains of their dead ancestors.
Animals without spinal columns or backbones are known as invertebrates. Cephalopods, mollusks, crustaceans, and corals are examples of invertebrates, as was already established. Sea creatures that don’t have backbones include sponges, jellyfish, sea anemones, roundworms, lugworms, starfish, sea cucumbers, sea lilies, and sea urchins.
Fishes
A fish is a vertebrate animal that inhabits the water. They use their gills to absorb oxygen. Fish lack legs and have two fins to aid in swimming through the water. They also have hearts. Fish can be divided into at least three categories: jawless, cartilaginous, and bony. Goldfish, cod, and tuna are some examples of bony fish. Several species of cartilaginous fish include sharks and rays. Fish without jaws include lampreys and hagfishes. Other marine life can be included in legal definitions of fish.
Mammals
Animals with backbones and hair are known as mammals. Female mammals produce their own milk to feed their young. Mammals have ear bones, teeth, a heart, and a brain. Since they have warm blood, they don’t need to alter their surroundings in order to cool or heat the inside of their bodies. Walruses, sea otters, seals, sea lions, whales, dugongs, and sea cows are a few examples of marine animals.
Seabirds
Seabirds are migratory birds that nest on land and feed on marine life. Gulls, swallows, penguins, puffins, bald eagles, ospreys, and flamingos are a few examples of seabirds.
Rays and sharks
Sharks and rays don’t have bones in their bodies. Instead, their skeletons are made of cartilage, a hard but flexible material that is often called “gristle.” They are also known as elasmobranchs, which refers to the fact that they have inflexible fins, numerous teeth, and an opening behind their jaws. Most fish, on the other hand, only have a single gill on each side of their heads. Additionally, they have placoid scales, which are extremely tough and enamel-like. Elasmobranch males use their fins for sexual activity. Sharks have excellent tactile and olfactory senses. Rays are sedentary and have flat bodies.
Reptiles and turtles
Turtles are creatures with backbones that lay their eggs on the sand and, when their young hatch, dash for the water. They are a subclass of vertebrates known as reptiles. Since reptiles have cold blood, the temperature outside of their bodies affects how hot or cold their internal organs are. Dry scales cover the reptiles’ bodies. Turtles, sea snakes, saltwater crocodiles, and marine iguanas are examples of marine reptiles.
What is the main threat to marine animals?
Aquariums
In a container filled with water, called an aquarium, people keep animals and plants for display or study. Even plants and animals that weren’t being harvested were harmed by the methods used to collect species for aquariums, such as the use of sodium cyanide. Also, humans have overfished marine species and shortened their lives by taking them away from their natural habitats.
People often choose clownfish, damselfish, angelfish, surgeonfish, gobies, wrasses, butterflyfish, coral, mollusks, and anemones for their aquariums. Other common aquarium invertebrates include cleaner shrimp, hermit crabs, giant clams, and starfish.
According to research done by the aquarium industry in 2003, most of the species used in saltwater aquariums come from the wild, mostly coral reefs, and other nearby habitats. On the other hand, the majority of the creatures used in freshwater aquariums are farmed. The low-income areas of Asian and island nations, including Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Palau, the Philippines, the Maldives, and Tonga, were frequently the birthplaces of saltwater aquarium creatures. The United States, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, and the Republic of Korea were the main countries in the northern hemisphere that brought marine animals into their countries.
as a food
The fact that fish and shellfish are important human food sources has several negative effects on the environment, two of which are mentioned in The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. As commercial fishing got better at catching more and more fish, the number of fish steadily went down. Mangroves, marshes, and other areas where animals live on the edge of the land have all been impacted by fish farming. Also, more fish must be caught to feed farmed fish and chickens. Most of the sand eels caught in the North Sea are used for this purpose.
New species, like an oyster that grows faster, have been brought into areas where mollusks are caught for food. Most of the time, new oyster species bring new diseases and other problems that are hard for native species to deal with.
Exploitation
Seabirds and sea otters are among the marine species whose habitats have been affected by oil and gas drilling and shipping in the seas and along the coasts. For instance, air cannons are used to drill for oil and gas on the ocean floor. The air cannons’ extremely loud sound can damage animals’ hearing, cause their brains to bleed, and prevent them from communicating with one another. It has been discovered that the air gun blast’s impact kills little aquatic creatures.
Also, people who mine for gems, metals, and minerals in the sea and on the beaches leave trash behind, which ends up in the water and hurts sea life. Mercury is released into the atmosphere, for instance, when coal is burned. The paints used to cover ship bottoms can also be harmful to marine life. Because they must rely on their chemical senses, crustaceans are vulnerable to nervous system harm when they are exposed to metals like cadmium.
A common animal response to pollutants is to eat less food. Animals that eat less food often don’t have enough energy to do their daily tasks, like finding the extra food they need to survive.
Finally, the sand and gravel that were utilized to create houses are now buried beneath the water. The dwellings of marine species are also harmed by ocean bottom drilling.
Worldwide Warming
A buildup of carbon dioxide can make the air warm. It shortens the lives of marine organisms and alters how the ocean functions. For instance, the type of sea plants that are currently thriving in the water along the British coast is those that are typically found in warmer waters. As a result, there have been much fewer crustaceans and codfish in the area than typical.
Research published in 2017 shows that the amount of oxygen in the ocean dropped by 2% between 1960 and 2010. The loss coincides with predictions made by climate change models that global warming will cause marine species to lose their habitats.
Loss and degradation of habitat
Many things that people do, like overfishing and dumping fertilizers, viruses, and other dangerous things into the water from land, have hurt the homes of marine species. Pollutants can increase acidity in the water, diminishing oxygen levels, and cause stress due to noise. Chemical industries, sewage treatment, and farming are a few examples of human activities that damage and destroy habitats. Increased carbon dioxide levels, which are related to climate change, lead to acidification.
Too many of the same kinds of plants develop in the run-off area when there is an excessive amount of fertilizer running from the land and rivers into the ocean, which limits the variety of fish and coral that may dwell there. A dead zone may develop when there are excessive amounts of nutrients flowing into the ocean from rivers or the land. Marine life has a hard time living in a “dead zone” because there isn’t enough oxygen and there are a lot of other chemicals like hydrogen sulfide and methane.
Mangroves are trees that thrive in a salt-and-freshwater mix. Due to human devastation, including prawn farming and urbanization, more than half of the mangrove forests that once covered three-quarters of tropical coastlines have vanished. Many animals, including seahorses and fish, are drawn to mangroves. Humans are shielded from tropical storms and tsunamis by mangrove forests.
Military
Noise pollution from military drills in the air and on the water hurts marine animals. Loud noises frequently cause whales, dolphins, and other fish to depart a location. The risks that the U.S. Navy poses to marine life in the Pacific Northwest are talked about in more depth here.
Maritime Activity and Fisheries
Marine animals are stressed out by the noise made by ships, fishing boats, military vessels, surveyors, vessels that use sonar, and pile driving. This could lead to fewer places for marine life to live in the oceans in the future.
Bulk carriers, which are huge vessels used to transport oil and other bulk cargo, can also transport new species to their destinations. Unintentionally, newly arrived marine species may become predators of local species.
Nets, lines, and other fishing equipment that has been lost add to the annual release of garbage into the ocean of about 14 billion pounds. Marine animals are frequently caught in the nets of fishing vessels. Bycatch is the term used to describe this phenomenon, which claims the lives of billions of marine animals every year.
Facts and Figures Regarding Marine Life
The number of marine animals killed by plastic
According to UNESCO, plastic debris causes the deaths of “more than a million seabirds annually, as well as more than 100,000 marine species.”
Popular Marine Animals
Positive Travel says that the top aquatic animals on Instagram are the polar bear, the orca, the whale shark, the humpback whale, the great white shark, the manta ray, the sailfish, the angelfish, the pufferfish, and the narwhal.
Some of the species that are often seen in popular culture are red Jamaican crabs, sponges, giant squid, Pacific regal blue tang, clownfish, starfish, and bottlenose dolphins. Other species include bottlenose dolphins and starfish.
What function does marine life serve?
According to Joshua Cooper at Cultural Survival, “oceans serve a critical role for life on earth, delivering over 70% of the oxygen we breathe and over 97 percent of the world’s water supply, not to mention being a source of food.”
What Is the Most Important Marine Animal?
Theorist Syl Ko describes how the term “animal” is typically framed as distinct from the term “human” in “By ‘Human,’ Everybody Just Means ‘White,'” a chapter in a book combining Black freedom and animal liberation. Typically, when we discuss animals, we do not include Homo sapiens. Marine life has been harmed as a direct result of human activity. By lessening the harms caused by overfishing, pollution, and exploitation, humans can take action to conserve marine life.
What Is the Depth of the Ocean?
The average depth of the ocean, according to NOAA, is 3,700 meters (12,000 ft) deep.
How Can Marine Life Be Saved?
Taking steps to lessen the effects of climate change is one method to protect marine life. Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Agenda, “Climate Action,” focuses on giving local communities—including women’s and youth’s groups, communities in island nations, and communities in low-income countries more authority. For instance, the Native Conservancy intends to grow kelp in a way that benefits Native communities, the ocean, and the environment, according to Duke Lankard.
The Future Route
Because of the information about marine species and how people have changed them, you now have a basic understanding of marine life. In addition to the advantages of eliminating these sources of stress, people have learned a lot about how marine animals have reacted to stress in their environments. More information on how each species of animal reacts to these stresses, including how individuals like you are fending off threats to marine life, may be found here.
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