MUCH of modern scientific work focuses on the environment in its many facets. For this month’s focus, one of the most important facets was ‘World Oceans Day’. Guyana, from the time of its settlement has always had a close symbiotic relationship with the ocean.

The ocean has always been both a friend and an adversary, but within the last two years, despite the threat of floods and the economic loss and social discomfiture which such floods would cause, the ocean has suddenly been transformed into a very generous friend with the discovery of large oil deposits.

One of the most valuable of the offerings of the ocean is its contribution to the country’s nutritious food supply. The food products of the sea such as fish, shrimps, prawns and various edible vegetation such as sea moss, provide healthier diets for the population. These food products are also exported and earn foreign exchange.

The ocean is also an important source of employment and many thousands are employed in sein fishing along the coast, manning trawlers or preparing the fish and other marine products for the market. A high proportion of the workers in the marine food industry are women and this helps to bring about gender equality.

The ocean plays a great part in the breakdown and removal of waste and pollution and in this sense makes the earth more livable. This function of the ocean is of great importance. The ocean also provides recreation. Beaches like Number 63 in Berbice, allow for swimming, boating and general relaxation and during the Easter season thousands of kite-fliers choose the sea coast to fly their kites. The festival of Easter Kite-flying is one of the unique joys the ocean offers Guyanese, and in particular the children.

Another joy which the ocean offers is the sunsets, moon-rises and dawns with their colours and cloud formations which will never repeat themselves. The ocean itself is home to a stunning variety of beautiful creatures which an increasing number of people are learning to appreciate and enjoy.

The oil and gas which the ocean offers will revolutionise Guyanese life and Guyana will take its place among the richer countries and its people would not need to emigrate. Indeed, part of its diaspora will return and there will be settlers from other countries and with these new infusions, a richer culture could evolve. But, despite these bounteous offerings of the ocean, human beings have ungratefully dumped all kinds of dangerous debris into it, harming the fish and other creatures of the ocean and destroyed or reduced fish stocks.

In the past, foreign companies were given licence to fish in Guyanese waters which once teemed with fish and other marine products. Now fish stocks are smaller and certain types of fish, such as snapper are becoming rare. Part of the depletion of the country’s fish stocks has been attributed to poaching in Guyanese waters by mostly Asian fishing fleets.

The government departments which are charged with protecting the fish stocks and ensuring their renewal are doing their best within their limitations, but they need more boats and equipment to protect against poaching, and enforcing bans on catching certain types of fish and other marine creatures during breeding and maturing seasons.

All citizens could participate in cleansing and respecting the ocean by their method of disposing of waste, especially plastic waste, and ultimately cease producing such plastic waste. When one throws plastic waste in a drain, canal or creek it will ultimately reach the ocean since all waterways are connected. Plastic waste is a killer and torturer of the fish, birds and mammals which live by the ocean.

Sometimes these creatures swallow plastic waste accidentally or because it resembles their prey. Turtles, for instance, eat plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish, and Guyana’s famed leatherback turtles have been decimated by such waste.

When the fish, bird or mammal ingests the plastic waste and fills the stomach, it would lead to starvation or malnutrition. Such plastic debris may also block the animal’s air passage and cause death by suffocation. Birds of prey and other carnivorous animals have been found with large concentrations of plastics in their stomachs, after preying on smaller birds which had eaten fish with plastics in them.

Most fishing nets are made of plastics and not biodegradable fibres as formerly. Sometimes nets are accidentally or deliberately discarded and they keep drifting for a very long time and continue to catch fish. Fish caught in these “ghost nets” attract other fish, mammals and sea-birds searching for food and they too become entangled causing a vicious circle of death. Such waste can affect human livelihoods.

Tourists do not visit countries with polluted beaches or coastlines. Drifting nets may entangle propellers and anchors damaging boats and since the nets continue to catch fish, they leave fishermen with smaller catches.

The ocean plays an essential part in ensuring a healthy and prosperous human life and it could only remain so and even extend that role if we respect its birds, fish and mammals, cleanse it and cease allowing plastic and toxic waste to be thrown into it.