Human activity is driving oxygen from oceans at a rapid rate.
A new report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, entitled ‘Ocean deoxygenation: Everyone’s problem” was released in November.
It is the largest, peer-reviewed study of the causes, impacts and solutions for this problem.
The study tested oxygen levels in oceans around the globe from 1960 to 2010. It reveals that worldwide areas of low-oxygen or no oxygen in marine territories are increasing.
In the 1960s there were 45 low oxygen ocean sites around the world. Now there are around 700.
Experts say that T&T ought to be concerned about these findings.
“With our rising temperatures, and our rising sea surface temperatures you would have less oxygen being able to be dissolved in the water, and in essence it would go back into the atmosphere,” said Dr Rhea Guppy, assistant professor of Marine Sciences at the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
Scientists fear that if our waters are warming, this will affect marine life negatively.
They also said local fishermen may start to notice lower quality fish, or they may find themselves having to go further out, into deeper waters for their catch.
Our coral reefs may also be negatively affected as well, which should be a concern for the local tourism industry that depends on the beauty of them to attract visitors to our shores.
How concerned should we be? Dan Laffoley is the Senior Advisor, Marine Science and Conservation at IUCN. He is also a co-editor of the report.
He said, “The findings in this study are perhaps the ultimate wake-up call from the uncontrolled experiment humanity is unleashing on the world’s ocean as carbon emissions continue to increase.”
Closer to home, Dr Guppy spoke about what she and her students have themselves seen, right in the waters of the Foreshore.
They have been testing the area since 2013, and the amount of biological life they are finding in the area has diminished significantly.
“We used to find a lot of worms, polychaete worms which were useful for indicators of environmental health. Now we are lucky if we get a handful of them,” she says. They also find lots of empty shells on these shores. Life isn’t living here the way it used to. “The degradation in six years is vast.”
But local awareness of the general poor health of our waters is low. Dr Guppy would like to see this change. She said people need to know that ocean health is tied to our health.
“This is where we eat. This our food. This is where we get our fish, where we get our shrimp. That is going into our own bodies.”
Only 15 per cent of Trinidad and Tobago is above water.
Yet the only protected marine space is Tobago’s Buccoo Reef.
The health of our marine environment is not on our radar, but as the IUCN report suggests, and as Dr Guppy has urged, perhaps it ought to be.