Since the beginning of time, and since God gave humankind the Earth to live on alongside the rest of His creatures, humankind has been a destroyer of all the beauty around. The pollution humans cause to the environment inevitably destroys unutterably, and this destruction negatively affects humans' lives and the lives of animals and plants that share life on Earth with them. In the following lines, we reveal how humans are their own worst enemy and the adversary of all other lifeforms on the planet. In this mind-opening interview, Dr. Emad Khalil shares with us valuable information on the issues of pollution and global warming, and the challenges facing the environment and marine life in particular as a result of this global crisis.
Dr. Emad Khalil is a Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Graeco-Roman Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University; he is also the Director of the Alexandria Center for Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage at Alexandria University, in addition to being a Professor of the UNESCO Chair for Underwater Cultural Heritage. Moreover, he was elected deputy of the UNESCO Scientific and Technical Committee for the 2001 Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. Dr. Emad was one of the first Egyptians to be trained in scuba diving and has worked in the field of discovering sunken antiquities in Egypt since the early 1990s.
First of all, we would like to understand the impact of human activity on marine life.
In the past, fishing was limited to using nets and hooks; also fishing boats were small in size and storage capacity. However, with the technological progress that our world is witnessing now, fishing techniques and tools have accordingly evolved. The boats have become bigger and their storage capacity has become greater. They are also now equipped with devices that can detect where fish gather underwater, their sizes, water depth, the nature of the sea floor, and other information. All this has contributed to the continuation of fishing trips for months at sea, unlike in the past.
With the lack of control over water bodies and what is happening in them, many practices that are severely harmful to water bodies and marine organisms have emerged. In East Asia, tens of thousands of sharks are hunted for their fins, which are used in preparing shark fin soup, a dish that symbolizes wealth and prestige in several countries in that region. Sharks are thrown back into the sea after their fins had been cut off, but they cannot survive without them and eventually die. This negatively affects the marine ecosystem and fishing communities in the region because sharks are extremely important to their environments.
Pollution is another aspect of human activities that harms the marine environment, whether because of petroleum spills due to ship accidents, sewage pollution, or inorganic waste such as plastic. Plastic is used in huge quantities worldwide, and it often ends up in the seas and oceans, whether by dumping it directly into the water or carried by the wind to the water. What is very dangerous about plastic is that it is a non-biodegradable material; it is broken down into microplastics that fish eat, consequently reaching our bodies by eating fish.
On the international level, and with the increase in fish consumption by humans as a healthy, beneficial, and safe food compared to red meat and poultry, we are facing the danger of consuming plastic through fish. Back to marine organisms, fish ingestion of plastic causes major digestive problems that can lead to their death. Some creatures, such as sea turtles, mix plastic bags that float on the water's surface with jellyfish, which represent their favorite meal, so they rush to eat them, then suffocate and die. When plastic covers the coral reefs, it leads to their death because they cannot breathe well and consequently die.
Hence, plastic consumption must be limited or rationed by limiting the availability of free plastic bags as is usual in the Egyptian market, replacing them with reusable bags that have already begun to spread in some stores or using bags made of cloth or paper.
Moreover, the movement of marine vehicles affects the migration of fish; for example, dolphins and whales confuse the vibrations caused by the propellers and engines of ships and submarines with the waves they emit to communicate with each other. This affects how these creatures distinguish directions, so they deviate from their intended destinations during their migration from one place to another. They may mistakenly head to the beach and eventually die, a phenomenon we have witnessed for years as whales approach the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
Do human activities affect marine organisms' behavior?
In general, marine organisms' behavior is always a response toward humans. Fish stimulated by shiny objects can attack divers wearing shiny gear; fish stimulated by the smell of sunscreens can attack swimmers who smell, not to mention that some fish die from the chemicals in these lotions. One of the most erroneous behaviors that have a very negative and deadly effect is throwing food to fish in the Red Sea. This behavior destroys the nature of marine organisms, making them dependent on humans when it comes to nutrition; they may even lose their innate ability to hunt and die if they do not find someone to provide them with food.
Similarly, the types of food that a person throws to fish are not part of their natural diet, as there is no type of fish that eats bread, eggs, or other human foods. This habit led to disastrous results, as stated in a report published after sharks attacked some divers in the Red Sea in 2012. When a person throws food to small fish, they gather in huge numbers to eat it, which leads to an unusual movement in the water, creating waves that stimulate large fish to attack these small fish that are considered food for the larger ones. When predatory fish arrive at these gatherings, they eat what they find along with the fish; in other words, they attack humans as food. After the recurrence of these incidents, this deadly behavior was prevented in the Red Sea to preserve the fish's instinct and their lives, in addition to their ability to hunt again.
Awareness is the critical word in this dilemma; no problem can be solved without spreading awareness about its severity. It is necessary to enact laws and penalties to combat the pollution of water bodies; it is also necessary to find alternatives to the use of plastic, and most importantly, to spread awareness among people through all available channels to inform people about the problem, its dangers, and dire consequences. We should not rely on the governmental institutions' efforts alone. Every citizen from their position should contribute to spreading awareness and try to change the wrong behaviors and habits that harm not only those who do them but also the entire world, in addition to threatening the future of our children, which we aim to secure.
Cover image by Freepik