Page 23: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2018)

gases on land start to deplete, we have the migration of schools of ? sh, which eating these ? sh as their staple food, so A growing world population, over- to look below the sea. There has to be affects the lives of these people who are the people would not be able to sustain ? shing of the seas and climate change technology to do this safer and at a low reliant on the life under the sea. their livings. So from that sense, we feel are all affecting greatly of the lives in the cost, extracting resources in an accurate So just thinking of all these together, if that there is a tremendous urgent impor- seas. So I think that the age has come in manner. So it is important to extract the we lose the life of the ? sh from the sea, tance in retaining and sustaining these which people would now have to start resources accurately and safely to help many people on the earth are actually ecosystems that are prevalent in the sea. protecting the oceans.

maintain a healthy ocean.

When I visited the Johnson Space

Center, I noticed that they already have a very detailed topography – the map of the Mars that are 15 million kilometers away from this earth already. But we still do not have the topographic chart – the seabed bathometric chart – for our earth.

So we are targeting 2030* as a landmark year for us to be able to complete the project to (create this seabed chart), to identify where resources may lie, and at the same time help the potential of the further exploration in the future of the required resources for the livings of the people in a more effective, safer manner.

These are the kind of things we need to know about the globe that we live on. (*Seabed 2030 is a collaborative proj- ect between the Nippon Foundation and

GEBCO, aiming to bring together avail- able bathymetric data to produce the de- ? nitive map of the world ocean ? oor by 2030 and make it available to all.)

Just one more question. When you look at all of the threats to the ocean today, is there one that stands out?

Promo Code for 5% off: MREP18

It is quite dif? cult to name only one par- ticular threat when it comes to what’s

Tandemloc MR Jan18.indd 1 12/13/2017 3:33:46 PM happening in the seas; therefore, I would say there are many threats that endanger the life under the sea. I have visited 125 countries around the world in my life, and when it comes to the problems in the sea, it is not only the problems that come from the developed countries, but there are a lot of developing countries that contribute to that threat, as well. The plastics that you have mentioned, as well as the PVCs – the vinyls – those are ? owing into the sea and being eaten by many of the lives that’s living in the seas. Recently there was news talking about shrimp that live 4,000 meters be- low the sea eating some plastics, with tiny little particles of the plastics dis- covered in the stomach of these shrimp.

If these little lives are polluted with plastics, if you think of the chain of the ecosystem, the larger ? sh, when they eat these shrimps, would also be endan- gered. So this is greatly impacting the entire ecosystems of the ? sh chain down (3DUU5RDG%HUQH,1 below the sea. Another threat that we see is the acidi- ? cation of waters, which has already started and is affecting the life of the sea.

You also see global warming affecting www.marinelink.com 23

MR #6 (18-25).indd 23 MR #6 (18-25).indd 23 6/6/2018 12:29:50 PM6/6/2018 12:29:50 PM