UMT | Portal Rasmi Universiti Malaysia Terengganu

Marine awareness campaign needs to persist, should be everyone’s responsibility

From Google

Marine awareness campaign needs to persist, should be everyone’s responsibility

Thursday, 08/06/2023

Share This Article :

Efforts taken to save the oceans can be seen as still being at a low level. Although the world took the initiative to introduce the World Oceans Day on 8 June more than 30 years ago in conjunction with the Earth Summit in Rio de Jeneiro, the action has not led to significant impacts.

The reality is that many among the society especially in Malaysia are still taking lightly the importance of environmental conservation that also includes ocean health maintenance.

This group has failed to realize the oceans’ valuable and sustainable contributions to human lives, such as the supply of oxygen for the respiratory system, provision of sufficient seafood catch, and help with weather and climate stability.

The oceans have become polluted as a consequence of environmental conservation negligence, such as unsystematic solid waste disposal, inefficient toxic waste management, throwing of rubbish into rivers. Indirectly this has had an effect on marine lives that see rubbish in the oceans as their food.

In addition, a serious plastic pollution problem in the oceans has also led to the dangerous microplastics. Microplastics are formed from small micro-sized particles that are separated, and they remain in the oceans as well as in marine animals such as fishes. Not only that, humans that have eaten these fishes have also eaten the microplastics, which may interfere with their health depending on the amount eaten.

Studies have shown that about 80 percent of the plastic in the oceans have come from land, where they have been taken by the rivers and streams to the oceans. Since the oceans are large and have no physical boundaries, it is currently estimated that between 15 and 51 trillion pieces of plastics are on the surface and bed of the world’s oceans.

According to a microplastic researcher from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Associate Professor Dr. Yusof Shuaib Ibrahim, humans received about 5 grams of microplastics within a period of one week, and it is equivalent to a piece of a credit card. This discovery is worrying!

The failure of the World Oceans Day campaign has also been proven with the presence of reports on turtle deaths every day. Recently, a news has gone viral about a turtle found dead by passers by at Pandak Beach, Chendering, Terengganu, due to inhuman acts. The turtle was discovered with its shell broken as a result of strong hits and its feet tied up. This incidence has further strengthened the conclusion that the society has not understood the connection between the oceans and humans.

In conjunction with the World Oceans Day celebration, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu through the Institute of Oceanography and Environment (INOS) has also organized several activities to support the efforts to protect the oceans and the marine ecosystem. Among the activities organized were the marine gallery exhibition in conjunction with the INOS Open Day, Beach Clean Up programme, Puppet Story Telling, Blue School Project, Bring Our Turtles Back, Sea Turtle Conservation Programme and others.

Hence, all parties are called to work together hand in hand in an effort to increase the awareness of the importance of environmental conservation, especially the oceans for the sake of the well-being of our lives.

 

Published by:

Corporate Communications Office

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu