Importance of Ocean and Environment Monitoring

The importance of oceans and our environment at large cannot be overemphasized. These oceans make up our entire well being, the policies that have been put in place to save our oceans should be backed up by science and research. Monitoring is important at the time that the ocean and environment at large are changing based on threats from greenhouse gases, overfishing, coastal pollution, and the continuous increase in world population.

Some of the reason why oceans and the environment need constant monitoring includes;

1. To monitor the rise in sea level; sea rise and other related flood hazards can have severe negative impacts on human life. The body in charge of the complete monitoring of these oceans is called; National Ocean Service. This body makes use of certain instruments that will ensure that the causes of inundation are understood and identified, they also use these technical instruments to check for local vulnerabilities and also identify various ways to solve to ensure that these vulnerabilities do not become severe. They also make use of a sea level rise viewer which clearly states how each sea level rise will impact or affect the communities around that area.

2. Another importance of regular ocean monitoring is to find out how oil spill by multinationals (sub-sea oil and gas control) will affect the world. It is recorded that every year that oil is spilled into these oceans, it does not matter if they are done intentionally or by accident, the fact still remains that these oil spills can cause harmful effects to those around and even the entire world at large.

3. Ocean monitoring is also essential to ensure that our lives are protected. If the ocean is contaminated, the beaches become dirty, the economy, communities and the entire ecosystem will be affected negatively.

Monitoring the environment has to do with certain necessary activities. As we all know, our environment is made up of water, air and land, so proper environment monitoring should take into cognizance these very important components.

Challenges

The effective monitoring of oceans and the environment at large requires certain technical skills and instruments that must be adopted to ensure that there is effective monitoring of these oceans are difficult to come by. Some of these instruments include satellites, maps, sea level viewers and other necessary instruments. One often neglected requirement is that of programmes. There are certain programmes and bodies that should be established to ensure proper control and monitoring of these environments and oceans.

The Future

To ensure the proper monitoring and control of these oceans and our environment at large, certain steps have been taken. Monitoring programmes have been set up, these programmes are designed in such a way that they include the already stated objective or goal that must be attained. Also, they contain the various strategies, ideas and technical skills and requirements that must be applied or used to ensure that these objectives and goals are met.

Also, certain surveys, indexes, and technologies have also been developed to ensure that ocean monitoring is effective. One of these happens to be the sensitivity index which is used to evaluate and rank the various impacts of oil spill in various communities. Also, it is interesting to know that governments of various countries are also ushering policies that will ensure that these oceans and the environment at large are safe from pollution, overfishing and increasing population.

Conclusion

Efficient and regular monitoring of the ocean and environment is at this point in time critical, the activities of man have proven to be harmful to the environment and it can have a negative and severe impact on not only the environment but also on all living things inhabiting in it.