We only have one ocean-Writers fortnight Article

We only have one ocean

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From the Amazon jungle to the Sahara desert, humans have already explored most of the surface of our world, we have uncovered ancient remnants of civilizations and discovered the bones of what used to roam our world millions of years ago. An oft-quoted phrase is that “we know more about the face of our moon than what lies beneath the ocean”. The ocean that we know is vast and abundant in biodiversity,  even though there is only an estimated 2.2 million species in oceans compared to the 6.5 million on land. The ocean plays a role that far outweighs terrestrial ecosystems. And to many of us we don’t fully realize the beautiful biodiversity found in oceans. The ocean is a part of the earth’s backbone, producing over half of the world’s oxygen and absorbing 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere, between regulating our climate, providing food and offering maritime trading.  The ocean has provided life and opportunity; yet despite all this, the tedious process in which we destroy the ocean is still happening. Through pollution, overfishing and ocean acidification, the life support system of the earth is being threatened.  

 

The story of Al Hornsby

It’s not over yet though, environmentalists, conservationists in the past and now have all stood up for nature conservation, one such example of a standout speaker is Al Hornsby; a well-known photographer and diver. Not only is he a prominent figure in the diving industry, but also the founder of Project AWARE, a non-profit organization that works with scuba divers to protect the ocean through shark conservation and marine litter. Having learned to dive at the age of 12, Al discovered an innate passion for exploring the wild and grew to have an appreciation of the underwater world.  Al was almost entirely dedicated to diving and exploring nature. I first learned of him when he was given the opportunity of presenting his speech to us at Writers’ Fortnight. During his writer’s fortnight speech to us students, he talked about his experiences of his close encounters with nature. This included swimming with bull sharks, venturing into alligator habitat and more. The experiences he shared with us were all founded on his moral philosophy. To learn to appreciate these animals and the environment they live in. Despite being close to dangerous predators that have the capacity to bring down an adult man, Al was unfazed by the situations he was put in.  “An animal predator does not mean the animal will aim to target and kill you, to the predator we are just an anomaly in their habitat that is meaningless to them as long as we don’t provoke or harm them.”  

 

What we can learn from him

 

In his close encounters with bull sharks, Al stated he simply let them come towards him, if he were to swim towards them the bull sharks would for sure flee.  This type of approach to animals is what Al told us. That we are miscomprehended wildlife to be aggressive and hostile.

 

His countless close encounters with wildlife taught him about animal behaviours and that their perception towards humans isn’t as hostile as we thought, the encounters he shared with us were just the tip of the iceberg,  Al has had many more encounters and he brought up in his published book “Face to Face with Mother Nature” which detailed his numerous encounters. “Face to Face with Mother Nature” was aimed at taking readers into an immersive world filled with his experiences and his photos.  “Unique, insightful,(face to face) is the result 

of Al’s lifelong fascination with animals…”. -Asian geographic  

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When Al chose to perform his speech for students at Writers’ Fortnight, he intended his speech to give off a message for us to appreciate animals, and clear the misconceptions about predators.  Despite Al not discussing environmental protection and conservation about the ocean, I believe that he is still advocating for more protection and conservation and his goal is to get other people to be educated on the problems the oceans face,  unlike traditional conservationists, environmentalists who get straight to the point and utilize facts, Al uses a different way. Al teaches us to learn and appreciate animals, when we learn the ecosystems that depend on them and the beauty of the animals, we learn about ourselves, and that we control and preserve the earth.

 

Marine pollution, overfishing and ocean acidification are all byproducts and harsh reminders to our neglect of nature, understanding that these are all human impacts means that we can solve them.  

Our world deserves better, and now under enough pressure from the public, big companies like Coca Cola, Nestle, Mcdonalds will have to rethink their business model, innovate to reduce waste.  Better, more sustainable fishing methods can be practiced and ocean acidification can be combated with strict regulations and a reduction on carbon oriented energy sources.  

 

 

You might not care for the ocean as much as I do, you may not want to practice recycling, conserving water and eating less meat, and in all truthfulness, in the grand scheme of things, our actions towards saving the environment might not mean much, but just like Al has taught us, by learning to appreciate the environment, only then will we be motivated to protect and conserve the environment.  Though there is little that we can change on our own, we can at least spread the word, and educate.