Oceans

The latest news about oceans is here …

What do you know about oceans?

Let’s start by thinking about this BIG Question …

‘Why do we need healthy oceans?’

The BIG Question! 

Why do we need healthy oceans?

because

•Oceans supply 80% of our world’s oxygen

•Oceans are the source of all fresh water*

•Oceans are home to millions of species of incredible animals

•Without healthy oceans life on Earth would not exist

It is essential that everyone learns about the importance of Earth’s oceans

*The Water Cycle

All fresh water begins with the oceans and returns to the oceans.

  1. water vapour gets evaporated from the oceans by the heat of the Sun

  2. the water vapour condenses to form clouds which are pushed around in the atmosphere by the wind

  3. when the clouds have to go upwards to go over high mountains, the water vapour gets cold and forms droplets of rain

  4. rain falls on land and becomes surface water heading back down the rivers to the sea, or being stored deep in the Earth where springs eventually bring the water back to the surface of the land 

  5. Once  the water has travelled back to the oceans –  the water cycle starts all over again 

Did You Know?

 Science Stuff …

Here are some interesting facts about Coral Reefs.

The sound you can hear on the video below – is our WeirdFish Lady breathing air from the tank on her back, while she’s filming?

  ‘Coral Awareness Week’  was 13 July – 19 July 2020

– so here’s some information on coral from the WeirdFish Lady.

FACTS ABOUT CORAL:

  • Coral is a marine animal
  • Coral Reefs are the most diverse environment on Earth (thousands of different creatures live together in the reef environment)
  • Coral Reefs make up 0.25% of the marine environment yet are home to 25% of all species of marine animals
  • It is an invertebrate – so it has no backbone
  • It is ‘sessile’ – that means it sits in one place and doesn’t chase it’s food like a ‘motile’ creature does
  • Each individual coral animal is called a polyp
  • Polyps have tentacles which they wave around in the water to catch plankton
  • Polyps have a mouth and an anus – in the same place
  • Photosynthetic algae live inside the corals and it is the algae which gives the coral its colour
  • When the seawater is too hot, the algae leaves the coral – the coral turns white – called ‘bleaching’ – and the coral dies
  • The algae and the coral live in a symbiotic relationship – they look after each other
  • Corals can reproduce sexually and asexually. Gametes (eggs and sperm) fuse in the water, then when the new polyp falls back down on the coral reef, it glues itself to the coral and clones itself so it becomes a clump of new coral – all looking identical
  • The image below on the left shows an amazing soft coral called Acrophora. Each individual white dot is coral polyp
  • Corals can be soft or hard – soft corals use water as a hydro-skeleton to hold it upright in the water
  • Which is my favourite coral? The acrophora, of course – it is just sooooo beautiful and I just love this snap taken by a good diver friend of mine – whilst Gloria was filming the video below on the right.

Did You Know??

I’ve just been reading all about sewage – it’s disgusting! 

Can you help clean up our Planet??

If you want to know more about the sewage problem and do a quiz too – then go to

Surfers Against Sewage

www.sas.org.uk

or contact them at info@sas.org.uk

Learn all about other organisations who are cleaning up the oceans: 

4 Ocean

Cleaning up plastic from around the world’s beaches – they’ve just celebrated collecting ten million pounds –

(weight) in trash.

Watch some of their videos …. below

and

Boyan Slat – with his “Ocean Clean Up’ System

a young Dutchman, working far out to sea- picking up plastic  in the Pacific 

and

Boyan Slat – with his “Ocean Clean Up’ System

a young Dutchman, working far out to sea- picking up plastic  in the Pacific 

A Message from Greenpeace

about

SUPERTRAWLERS

Activists recently stopped a supertrawler from fishing in a UK Marine Protected Area. Climbers boarded the ship and dropped a banner reading “Ban supertrawlers now”, forcing this giant vessel to stop fishing in the protected area. But this was only a temporary solution. To stop destructive fishing in our protected waters for good, we need the government to take action.

Greenpeace investigations have shown that supertrawlers, like the one stopped by their activists, were fishing in UK ‘protected’ areas for a total of 2963 hours in 2019 – the equivalent of four months. And a recent investigation has shown that supertrawler activity in our protected waters has almost doubled this year compared to last – and the year’s not over yet! 

The government is failing to properly protect these ecologically important marine areas.  It’s obvious – supertrawlers, which catch hundreds of tonnes of fish every day with nets up to a mile long, shouldn’t be fishing anywhere near our waters. And yet the government still hasn’t banned them from these protected waters.  

Make your voice heard – sign a petition to the government!

More information at www.greenpeace.org.uk