A Coastal Ecologist at the University of Cape Coast Prof Dennis Worlanyo Aheto has described human activities depleting global water bodies and its resources as worrying.
Prof Aheto who is the Director of Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience at the Centre for Coastal Management at the University of Cape Coast, speaking on the commemoration of World Oceans Day, marked annually on the 8th of June, called for a robust and collective effort to end all human activities that threaten the survival of water bodies across the globe.
Reports indicate that the five oceans—Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern which contribute to 70% of the earth’s total space is gradually decreasing.
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Speaking on ATL FM’s Atlantic Wave Monday morning, he said, ” There are a number of anthropogenic or human-induced factors as well as those that are nature induced illicit fishing activities, illicit trade, and pollution of the ocean from land-based sources. Most of these activities release carbon dioxide and of course, the ocean absorbs 30% of it in a way to buffer the impact of global warming”.
He cautioned that these activities do not affect only the oceans, according to him, “the challenges are numerous and they intend affect the economy of the ocean in terms of marine transport, oil and gas investments, and largely resource management.”
Ghana as a signatory to the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea is mandated to put in place interventions in terms of conservation, stamping out illegal activities, contributing to research and increasing transparency of the sector.
However, Professor Aheto believes succeeding with conservation of the ocean as a country would need additional support from individuals.
“At the individual level we should be mindful that these are serious global challenges , some of the issues cannot be addressed at the individual level but we need to act collectively to be able to promote the kind of things we would have to do in managing the ocean”, he said.
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Professor Ahetor noted that there is the need for such individual supports since it could contribute to collectively mapping out an action that can be taken to augment government’s efforts. He said this should be done by collectively calling out the wanton destruction along the coasts.
“Usually in Ghana we want to have law enforcement but I think we should also at the individual level think about the things we can do in order to contribute to not destroying our coastline” he advised
World Oceans Day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, mobilize and unite the world’s population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.
This year, the celebration was under the theme, Innovation for a sustainable Ocean. The theme focuses on exploring different kinds of innovation that has not prevailed so far that will allow, organisations, institutions and individuals explore more creative ways as to how challenges confronting the management and conservation of the oceans can be reversed.
Source: Joseph Kobina Amuah/ATLFMNEWS
