Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Which came first: the chicken or the egg? None. The correct answer is the ocean. Researchers believe that life might have started about 4 billion years ago deep deep deep… very deep under water. Oceans cover about two thirds of our planet and we believe there might be at least 280 000 species (Océans et climat, Boeuf 2019) living in the big blue. Last year we managed to send a handful of humans on commercial flights to space but how much do we know about our oceans?

The big blue hides the most hideous and the most beautiful animals on the planet. From the beluga to the stargazer (This could be your next halloween costume. Look it up, it’s hideous), from the manta ray to the tiniest krill, it is obvious that our oceans play a crucial role in the way our planet works. They also provide necessary food, and even energy, to humans around the world. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the theoretical annual energy potential of waves is about 60% of the energy generation in the United States in 2020 (about 2.64 trillion kilowatt-hours) and that coasts in Europe, Japan and New Zealand could be potential power sites for wave power production. Even the smallest organism is essential to our planet. Let’s take for example phytoplankton, which absorbs carbon dioxide and rejects oxygen. We believe that thanks to photosynthesis, it is responsible for about 50% of the oxygen on our planet. In other words, it’s the kind of player you definitely want on your team. Phytoplankton also absorbs an enormous amount of harmful gases created by human activity and even though you can barely see it, it is crucial to our survival.

Oceans absorbs such big amounts of CO2 that it is believed to contain 50 times more carbon than our atmosphere. The gas is dissolved into the water and drowns all the way down to the oceans bed, often dragged by marine currents. Mangroves, found in tropical and subtropical coastlines are also very important in the absorption of carbon dioxide as they also trap the carbon into their roots that appear above sea level.

Oceans help to cool down our atmosphere. A healthy ocean is essential to avoid climate change! If our planet did not have such a unique cooling system, humanity would surely not exist. A warmer ocean would have a devastating impact on our climate as it would not be able to cool down the atmosphere. The emission of greenhouse gases is currently making it more complicated to cool down the air. Why? Because it captures the heat and therefore heats up our oceans making it more difficult for them to cool down the atmosphere. It also affects the water cycle of our planet which has a direct impact on precipitations (liquid or frozen water that falls from the sky). Rain can sometimes be annoying but hey, we need it!

We still have a lot to learn about our oceans: only 20% of ocean beds are mapped in high resolution and there are still areas we know nothing about. There are ecosystems and species still unknown to mankind and we believe there could be between 500.000 and 10 million different species left to discover (Biodiversité marine, Ifremer, 2017). Enough to drive Darwin crazy!

One thing is sure, if our oceans are a source of energy, of food for millions of people, absorb carbon and have a biodiversity that can surely give us answers on climate change and pharmaceutical issues, they are definitely worth protecting. Now that you know more about them, think about everything you can do to preserve our oceans even though sometimes it can be hard to imagine. Not living by the ocean or not having an idea of everything it hides does not mean we should not protect them. After all, if we do, we directly protect what surrounds us.