Protect the ocean: Protecting Earth’s life support

Look after it and it will look after you.

Remember your PADI Open Water Diver course? The section on how to maintain and care for your regulator. Underwater, the regulator serves as a diver’s life support. It delivers air to the diver to allow him/her to breath. Humans need air to survive.

The same method applies to caring for the ocean. We know we need to care for it and protect it but exactly, just why should we?

The ocean holds 97% of the world’s water. Making it the Earth’s largest ecosystem and directly, the Earth’s largest life support. The ocean also produces half of the oxygen all living things need to breathe.

We all know how important it is to breathe air (clean air!) to live. And in order to do so, we need to ensure our regulator is looked after.

 “The sheer number of people who use and depend on the ocean, and the sometimes unwise practices we adopt, have created problems such as overharvest of resources, reduction in biodiversity, and degradation of marine habitats and species, among others. We risk the very ecosystems on which our survival depends.” Protect Planet Ocean

How do we keep our ocean healthy?

• Make LESS WASTE – Buy only items/packaging that can be re-used and recycled.
• STOP using PLASTIC – Avoid using plastic bags (and paying for it) by using a shopping bag. Use a container instead for picnics instead of plastics. It’s safer and most importantly, you save a lot more by reusing a container instead of buying and throwing the plastic later. Bring your own grocery bag. Why pay for plastics you will throw away? Save the penny for your bus rides.
• REDUCE your carbon footprint – Learn about it here.
• Eat SUSTAINABLY caught seafood – You will protect the health of the fish populations and protect coral reefs.
• BUY & GROW ORGANIC. Easier said than done but we need to work now before our resources becomes obsolete.
• DIVE RESPONSIBLY. Do not touch, harass, remove any marine life. Manage your buoyancy

Keeping the ocean clean means we have clean air and water. We will breathe and live healthily. When living things are deprived of these, can you imagine how the world would end up? Find out more how you can learn to protect the ocean. Take the pledge with Project Aware