oceans

Each year as the weather warms, crowds of families and tourists flock to the beaches. People sometimes don’t realize the risk they take when they enter the ocean, a vast aquatic habitat. Newsrooms in coastal communities are well aware that when humans and wildlife interact, the results can be tragic – especially when sharks make an appearance. Even a minor run-in with a shark can send someone to the emergency room for surgery and stitches.

When humans hunt and fish, they tend to favor animals that provide significant resources. In the oceans, whales, sharks and other large vertebrates have been targeted for centuries, and while the international ban on whaling has helped some species recover in select areas, many populations have fallen to a fraction of their natural levels.

On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, leading to the largest oil spill in world history — more than five million barrels. While much of the surface oil dispersed faster than expected after the well was capped in July, undersea plumes linger, as do the spill’s impacts on the environment and human health.

Human activity has negatively affected animal populations on land for tens of thousands of years, with numerous instances where unsustainable hunting practices or deliberate, widespread acts of eradication have led to what scientists call “defaunation” — the human-caused global extinction of a species.

Overfishing is a problem that has become more acute as global populations have increased, technology has improved and the environment has degraded. Until recently most management efforts have focused on limiting fishing days or areas, yet fishing stocks have continued to decline precipitously.

Following the destructive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the United States Tsunami Warning and Education Act was signed December 2006. Among other things, the act called for broadening of the global historical tsunami database to include data on coastal water levels, damage reports and deep-water changes.