The Ocean: Just Scratched The Surface

The Ocean: Just Scratched the Surface

People have been so concerned about exploring space and colonizing there for many years, when we barely even explored our own planet. The ocean takes up 96% of the Earth and we only explored 5% of it. Just think about that, we barely know our own planet, but everyone wants to leave our planet and explore a different one. Some people can argue that space is more important because it could have better resources out there for us, but do people even know what's in our ocean, there can be anything down there but how would we know? People always talk about the megalodon and if it's still alive or even if Atlantis exists. The world has been talking about myths like those two for years and years but it appears no one really wants to find out. The ocean is worth exploring first for so many reasons that it's silly to think space should be the top priority.

To start things off, the ocean provides more than 70% of the Earth's oxygen. How can we live on this planet and not fully know what helps breath on it. Imagine figuring out why the ocean provides so much oxygen, controlling it, and then using it on another planet to make it habitable. Another reason is what an article from WIRED stated, “ It drives our weather, provides a nutritious food supply, and is a key source of commerce, supporting more than 28 million jobs in the United States alone. For those reasons, it deserves our reverence and protection. Instead, humans neglect it and treat it like a toilet that we overfish from”(1). The ocean has ecosystems that we haven't even explored yet.

According to National Geographic, there could be more than 90% of ocean creatures that we haven’t even discovered yet. Unfortunately, due to rising ocean temperatures, pollution, and other problems, oceanographers believe that we are losing undiscovered species. For example, phytoplankton are microscopic plants in the ocean that make up about 80% of the Earth’s oxygen. Can you believe that an organism that sits on the surface of lakes and oceans that is invisible to the naked eye can produce all of that oxygen for us. When the phytoplankton come together they can turn the body of water around them to red, green or milky white. Something as small as phytoplankton is what’s helping our world stay alive. Who knows what else is down there and that could also help us but we wouldn’t know because we barely even looked.

As stated earlier, the ocean has so many myths and mysteries about it, people never know what to believe. One great example of one of these creatures is the giant squid. According to Reader's Digest, the giant squid was a myth until 2004 when someone got a photograph of this creature and then some years later in 2012, someone got a video of the giant squid. Scientists still do not know anything about the giant squid except the footage they saw of it, but they predict that the giant squid can be up to 66 feet long.

A very important reason why we need to focus on exploring our ocean is because we could potentially find extraordinary discoveries like cures for diseases. In India, there are places dedicated to marine pharmacology. Some people around the world realize how significant the ocean can be for us. An example of what medicine we already made is called Salinosporamide A, it is hoped to be the cure for colon cancer, certain types of lung cancer, and most importantly, breast cancer, according to Scuba diver Life. Since we have been using resorucs like flowers and plants for drugs for so long that some of these resources are becoming ineffective due to the bacteria becoming almost resistant to them. Scientists in the NOAA started collecting items like sponges and coral from the ocean to see if they could be a good alternative resource for our medicine. According to Ocean Today, “They and their partners discovered a chemical that breaks down the shield that bacteria use to protect themselves from antibiotics. Used as a helper drug, antibiotics that are no longer effective would once again be able to fight off these resistant bacteria” (8). NOAA scientists also extracted a chemical from the corals and sponges that can fight some of the toughest infections, according to Ocean Today. They make copies of this chemical in a lab so they don’t have to keep extracting the chemical from the sponges or corals. To me, it is a shame that the news isn’t broadcasting amazing discoveries like this. These scientists could be on the verge of something extraordinary and a game changer in medicine for us. We need to do our part for this world by keeping the ocean pollution free and healthy so we can find new resources for our medicine.

Our world hasn’t been kind to our oceans at all. Industries have been putting their waste in the ocean for years and people just litter and it ends up in the ocean where sea creatures eat it or get stuck in it and die. These creatures don’t know any better, they think it is just normal food but they get trapped and die. The ocean is also being affected by global warming. Sea levels continue to rise every year and coastal cities can be in serious trouble in the near future. All of these problems are happening because we have burning oil gas and other fuels. It is time we mainstream a new source of energy to use like solar energy or electric instead of gas. We know that the stuff we do is causing harm to our planet and ocean, so it’s time we start resolving the problem.

As time goes on we lose discovering something amazing that may not be there tomorrow. The ocean is the most fascinating thing on Earth, not exploring it would be like not taking all the money in the world. The ocean has provided so much for this world already, and we haven't even scratched the surface.