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Human Manipulation And Its Effects On The Health Of Our Oceans

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You may visit the beach every day, or you may have never seen the beach in your life, either way you have some level of connectivity to the sea. Regardless of your geographical location, or your relationship with ocean waters, their quality directly effects the quality of your life. The oceans contain about ninety-seven percent of the Earths water and cover two-thirds of the planet. They provide a source of food, recreation, bioengineering possibilities, and even the water we drink. The oceans absorb about thirty percent of the carbon dioxide we create and they produce around seventy percent of the oxygen we breath. Needless to say, life on Earth depends on the health of our oceans. One could argue that ocean health has been degrading …show more content…

To expand on our oceans current status, large-scale evaluations of marine biodiversity loss have revealed that, “Human impacts have depleted >90% of formerly important species, destroyed >65% of sea grass and wetland habitat, degraded water quality, and accelerated species invasions.” (Lotze et al., 2006). Intentional or unintentional, it matters not, ocean exploitation and degradation is an ongoing crisis. One solution that has been proposed to assist in averting our oceans crises is the further implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). To define Marine Protected Area, it is a discrete geographic area of the sea established by international, national, territorial, tribal, or local laws designated to enhance the long-term conservation of natural resources therein. The term and idea has been around for a few decades and is continuously being revised and improved as times change. To clarify the idea behind the definition, MPAs are small ocean zones that are established with a goal of improving ocean health, increasing the abundance of marine life, and increasing the diversity of marine life. MPAs are a sort of ocean resource sustainability practice. The protected areas are placed into one of three major categories. Marine reserves are fully protected ocean areas. No activities that remove flora or fauna or alter habitats may

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