By Nik Liyana
Edited by Syafiqah Suhaimi
1.1 Example from the movie ‘Finding Dory’
The animation movie Finding Dory has thoroughly explored how human actions can negatively impact the ocean and subsequently marine life. We, Malaysians, need to understand the moral values embedded in the movie as Malaysia is a maritime country, with more than 4,600 kilometres of coastline and four major large bodies of water: Straits of Malacca, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, and Sulawesi Sea. Marine life is very vulnerable to human influences such as waste dumping from human activities, toxins from drains, and overfishing.
1.2 Waste dumping from human activities
It is a fact that the exponential growth of technological and scientific advancement has benefited civilisation tremendously. However, it cannot be denied that the destruction of marine life is a devastating side effect of this achievement. The dumping of industrial waste and nuclear waste into the oceans was prevalent until the early 1970s when it became regulated. However, illegal dumping still persists due to the vastness of the ocean, making monitoring improbable. Long before Malaysians have understood the complex systems in our oceans and the crucial part we play in impacting the weather and their supplements of natural resources, we have adopted the attitude of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and dumped waste into the oceans. Waste dumping can destroy habitats and ecosystems as excessive deposit releases toxins and chemical contaminations.
1.3
Furthermore, pesticides, fertilisers, and chemicals are beneficial on farms and in industry, but they contain toxins which contaminate nearby rivers which will then spread into the ocean. An unwanted effect of waste dumping and toxic waste is eutrophication, a biological process where nutrients cause rapid growth of bacteria and aquatic plants, lowering the oxygen level in the water body and creating dead zones.
Dead zones are areas where aquatic life cannot survive due to the lack of dissolved oxygen caused by significant nutrient pollution from upstream sources. These nutrients include phosphorus and nitrogen derived from agriculture, industry and domestic waste. For this reason, dead zones are often located near inhabited coastlines.
1.5
Waste dumping and toxins are indeed harmful to marine life. However, a simple act such as overfishing can lead to the destruction of marine life. Overfishing has caused fish populations and habitats to be severely threatened beyond their capability to recuperate from this fatal damage. Every year, Malaysian fishermen catch seafood worth almost a million tonnes, with approximately 40,000 tonnes frozen as reserves. This immoral action has captured almost all of the mature seafood stock together with young creatures due to nets of giant trawlers. Marine wildlife, such as turtles, numerous fish species, and many hard coral species, is already threatened by waste dumping, toxins from drains, and unsustainable fishing practices and faces the risk of extinction if left alone.
As a maritime country, we, Malaysians, need to have awareness and concern towards the maritime’s current devastating situation. The current dire situation of marine life is due to our negative habits of apathy and ignorance towards environmental issues in general and marine life specifically. The immediate gratification of money and unseen consequences for the ocean and marine life are possible factors of Malaysians’ careless and negligent behaviours such as waste dumping, toxins from drains, and overfishing. It will take more resources, energy, time, and discipline in order to help the ocean and marine life heal. However, it needs to be noted that the ocean will never recover to how it initially was. Nevertheless, that does not mean that the ocean and marine life should be abandoned entirely, as it falls under Sustainable Development Goals: Life below water.
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