Marine matters….because the oceans really do matter

This first post allocated in the area of Marine Matters is an intro into why I want to incorporate Marine issues in this blog on the Ingredients of Wellness.

Well if you’ve read about me you’ll see that the oceans and the marine animals that reside in the big blue world are one of my loves and passions.  In my more than 20 years of scuba diving throughout Australia and Asia I have seen amazing beauty, abundant life, awesome and unusual creatures you would never imagine, and in more recent years, the severe destruction and depletion of this environment and marine life.  As we have returned to dive locations over the years the reduced numbers of stocks and the destruction of coral reefs is cause for concern.

The island nations where we have had the pleasure of diving, depend on the sea for their livelihood and to feed their people, so it is  disheartening to know that many of the fishermen are being tempted by short term gain; big bucks offered by international fishing fleets for fish that are often gained through unsustainable fishing practices, such as cyanide fishing, dynamite fishing, gillnets, finning (the practice of hacking of the shark fins and throwing the body back in the water leaving the shark to die an excruciating death), and more.  This past new year we spent a few days diving in the waters off Mabul and Sipadan (Borneo) and although parts of the Celebes Sea are protected marine reserves, we heard the frightening sounds of dynamite fishing on about 20% of our dives.

Whitetip reef shark Sipadan

But back to my point

My interest lies in understanding the interrelationship between our wellness (physical, psychological, emotional, social and environmental) and our interactions with the marine environment and especially though marine conservation involvement.  Through these pages I hope to shed light on this interrelationship, to draw on these ideas, and to develop the bigger questions that need answering through research.

Resolutions

Although I want to keep this content and the content throughout the blog positive and optimistic,  some of what I will write about  here in Marine Matters will be around some of the not so nice things happening to our oceans such as over fishing and plastic pollution.  But before I get into any of that I will finish this post with one of my  resolutions for 2013 specifically to help our oceans, marine waterways, and marine life.

Simple hey!!  What will you do to help your marine environment in 2013?

Thanks for tuning in

Be well

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