What is Marine Conservation? | How to Protect Our Oceans

Hello and welcome to the
Natural World Facts Awareness Project.

A new series in which I’ll be
explaining the importance of

wildlife conservation and
what you can do to help.

In this video, I’m joined by Alex Collins,

a fellow YouTube wildlife
enthusiast and biologist

at the University of Bristol.

His channel is linked below,

I recommend you check it out

for videos on some of the world’s
rarest species

and what you can do to help them.

So what is Marine Conservation?

Marine Conservation is defined as
the protection of marine ecosystems,

with the focus of limiting the damage
caused to them by humans

and protecting threatened species.

The main threats being seen in
our oceans include species loss,

habitat degradation,

and changes in ecosystem function.

Human activities causing a rise
in extinction rates

has lead to a huge decrease
in biodiversity,

particularly in coral reefs,
88% of which are threatened

by excessive CO2 emissions.

These reefs are among the most important
stores of biodiversity on the planet.

It takes around ten thousand years
for a reef to form from coral polyps,

and up to 30 million years for

a reef to fully mature,

hosting an estimated 25%
of all marine life.

And yet, around the world,

coral reefs are dying,

as warming temperatures and
stressful conditions bleach the corals

white as they are forced to expel
the colourful algae

on which the coral depends
for its survival.

So, why does this matter?

Why is marine conservation
so important?

With the world’s oceans currently
under more threat than ever before,

and with half of the world’s coral reefs
having died in the last 30 years,

marine conservation has never been

more important than is today.

I’ve already made some videos

explaining why conservation is
so important to you

and why we should save
endangered species

So make sure to check
those videos out after

watching this.

Put simply, different species rely
on each other for survival.

If one species is under threat,

the likelihood is that so
is another species.

This can have a chain reaction, until

eventually a whole ecosystem
is under threat.

We need healthy ecosystems
just as much as

the marine life itself,

because without them,
we’d have less food, less money,

and with altogether less life
on our planet.

The bottom line is Earth needs
healthy oceans, and it is our

responsibility to protect them.

So how can we do this?

One of the most effective methods has been
the setting up of marine protected areas.

This creates a much safer environment
for marine life,

undisturbed by the impacts of overfishing,

noise pollution from ships, and
other human activities.

Thankfully, biodiversity has been found to increase
by 21% within marine reserves like these.

We can also use artificial reefs.

These are man-made structures,
built to promote marine life

and the growth of new coral.

Artificial reefs have proven successful
in providing a habitat for threatened wildlife,

These allow damaged ecosystems to recover

and valuable biodiversity to regenerate.

As well as these strategies, we also
need to be careful in the way

we interact with the marine environment.

Active demersal fishing techniques,
like trawling,

where a net is dragged along
the bottom of sea floor,

can be really destructive

as this destroy ecologically important
species like certain corals.

Active pelagic fishing techniques, where a
net is dragged through the open ocean,

can also be just as bad.

This is because that it’s indiscriminate,
meaning that

they catch anything in their way of net,

regardless of whether
the fisherman want it or not.

This often leads to protected animals
like dolphins and turtles being injured

or killed. For every 1 kilogram of prawns
that are caught and sold in stores,

nine kilograms of other sea animals
are caught as bycatch,

being injured or killed and
then thrown away.

Marine conservation efforts have been
made to reduce the destruction

caused by these fishing techniques,

either by reducing the amount of time
of these techniques are allowed to be used

or making the technique itself
less destructive.

One example of this, is to use
specific fishing hooks which

are less likely to catch unwanted species.

Solving these problems does
take a lot of hard work,

but that doesn’t mean
there’s nothing that you can do

if you don’t work as a conservationist.

So here are some other things that you can
do to help marine conservation.

Firstly, use your water supply
more economically.

This will not only save you money, but it will

also reduce excess runoff, containing
pollutants and waste into the ocean.

Secondly, use less energy in your daily life.

Higher temperatures can cause the death

of corals, rising sea levels and flooding,

and more extreme weather which
can damage marine ecosystems.

Many marine species also rely on
specific temperatures to determine

what sex they develop into.

This is called temperature-dependent
sex determination,

and so by changing the temperature we can
throw an entire population out of balance.

You can also fish more responsibly,

or just fish less, or not at all if that is
an option to you.

The same goes for eating seafood.

Reducing your use of plastics
is also essential.

Ingestion of microplastics, bits of plastic

which are less than 5mm across,
can lead to bioaccumulation.

This is where harmful substances

build up in the food chain and eventually
cause serious damage

to the species at the top.

There are just a few things
that you should consider

when trying to cause less impact
to marine life.

There are of course plenty
of other things that you can do to help.

So if you’d like to know more,

then let us know down in the comments,

so that we can make another video for you.

Thank you for watching.

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from The Awareness Project.

Hit the like button and be sure
to watch our video

on the Pine Marten by following
the link to Alex’s channel.

I hope you enjoy it.