Student

Biology has many different fields of study. My major is marine biology. Marine biology is a specific field of study of biology. Marine biology is the field of knowledge relating to marine organisms . To many, a marine biologists means being a dolphin trainer but to others it means managing a marine wildlife sanctuary. I would say that a marine biologist is someone who works in some way in studying , observing, protecting, or managing marine organisms , plants or animals. If you study marine fish populations you are a marine biologist. If you manage a marine wildlife preserve and are concerned with protection of marine organisms, you are too a marine biologist. You may be counting marine creatures, doing DNA sequencing of them , observing them in the labatory making theoretical models predicting their abundance once fishing is decreased, so marine biologists do many things, but what they have in common is working with marine organisms.

I have a strong interest in marine conservation. In the future I would like to inspire education, research, and sea ethic. The ocean gives us life! It gives us oxygen , the rain, food, wonder, and mystery. The ocean helps us regulate global temperatures, manages vast amounts of our pollutants, contains all kinds of amazing creatures and supports all life on our planet. The ocean is just now beginning to be understood and with that understanding comes the realization that the ocean is in deep trouble. Marine conservation efforts are out-numbered by the problems. Biology will provide data needed to prevent the loss of marine biodiversity. Data on the threats of the marine environment are needed to inform policy makers and other stakeholders on the most critical problems that need to be addressed. Fish stocks are declining at a alarming rate, may have collapsed beyond repair. The list of marine species listed as threatened or in danger of extinction grows longer every year. The worlds coral reefs, home of the greatest biodiversity of marine fishes are deteriorating due to destructive fishing practices and bleaching mercury levels in many commercially fished species are at a all time high. With out the scientific data and understanding needed to demonstrate the magnitude of these problems they will not be resolved. The science of marine conversation biology is greatly needed to prevent further destruction and to reverse the damage already done. Fish currently supply the greatest percentage of the worlds protein consumed by humans. This fact may soon change, many of the worlds major fisheries are being fished at levels above their maximum sustainable yield. Many regions are severely over fished.

Currently , fish stocks are depleted to the point where they may not be able to recover. The eastern coast of Canada and the northeastern coast of the U.S. have fished certain species to collapse, which caused the fishing communities that relied on those stocks to collapse. Sometimes depleted fish stocks have been restored. If the species depletion causes an imbalance in the ecosystem, it’s difficult for the depleted stocks to return sustainable levels, other species dependent on the other stocks may become imbalanced causing further problems. The ocean seems invulnerable because it is vast and under- explore. Over fishing not only caused depletion in individual fish stocks, but also disruption to entire ecosystems and food webs in the ocean. The management of ecosystems as apposed to managing only target species entails; maintaining populations of target species to enable their natural role in ecosystems and to enable sustainable reproduction rates , eliminating the use of fishing gear that creates a high level of by catch, or the accidental catch of non target species, close feeding, breeding and spawning grounds to protect marine ecosystems. Deep sea trawling is particularly harmful to ecosystems because is strips the entire environment of all living things including deep ocean corals. Continued striping of deep sea areas may cause species to become extinct before they have a chance to be identified by science. At the surface, the ocean can appear calm and quit, their actually is an enormous amount of life activity taking place, particularly at certain times of the year, reproductive stages.

The ocean is the basin that catches almost all the water in the world. Eventually, water evaporates from the ocean, leaves the salt behind, and becomes rainfall over land. Water from melted snow ends up in rivers, which flow through estuaries and meet up with the saltwater. Fertilizers, pesticides, and oil, mostly from farms, seep into ground after a rain and then stream into rivers and then into the ocean. A zone without any life remaining is referred to as a dead zone and can be the size of the entire states like in coastal zones of Texas and Louisiana. All major bays and estuaries now have dead zones from pollution run-off. Pollutants