Monday 13 June 2011

Survival of Seagrass

I saw interesting article from The Ecologist today that I wanted to share. It was actually the beginning of this piece that shocked me most: "Every hour, an area of seagrass meadows the size of two football pitches is lost." Wow. The rate of biodiversity loss never fails to amaze me (although I do sometimes wonder how they work out these statistics having done studies myself).
The other point being made here was the lack of attention seagrass receives. We have keystone species and habitats such as the amazon which are heavily focused on when raising money and awareness about environmental issues, but I'm sure the average person on the street couldn't tell you what seagrass was, let alone give details on its status. And yet approximately 1 BILLION people live within 50km of a seagrass meadow.
Seagrass may not be charasmatic or glamorous like other marine environments such as coral reefs, but it is still an important habitat in its own right for many species of fish, turtles and many others.
Personally, I believe another issue here is that people don't really see the ocean as threatened, or in need of environmental protection. They think that because we don't primarily exist in water we can't possibly be doing it much harm. They are much more inclined to take responsibility for woodland loss, or air pollution.
However, we should remember the importance the ocean has in transportation, ecotourism and its aesthetic value. It is shrouded in biodiversity and unlike land, it has masses of unexplored territory. Species are being lost that we are not even aware exist.
Should we accept defeat and explore these parts before they are lost forever? Or fight for their survival?

1 comment:

  1. I think it's disgusting that people go around in life feeling like they do no damage in their 4 by 4's and wasting energy, all because they cant see the damage they do. It's short sighted and selfish, and I am glad your blog is making people more aware of what is going on in the world around them.

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