The ocean is dying

Ivan Macfadyen is what is known as a man of the sea. Citizen of Newcastle, England, ten years ago, Ivan has crossed the Pacific Ocean on his yacht from Melbourne to Osaka, cleaving the waves and enjoying the life energy transmitted by the big blue. He repeated the experience this year, in March and April, but the show that appeared before this time has left him terrified and mortified: the Pacific Ocean is dying and is turning in the landfills of industrial wastes of all the planet.

In his story to the media, the catfish British recalled that during his past experience "never spent a day without catturassimo a nice fish to cook and eat with a little 'rice', while the sound of the birds was a constant that needed to be used. "We saw them follow the boat, stop the shaft before resuming the flight, flocks fly over the surface of the sea to fish for sardines." 
This year, the only constants in his sea voyage were the silence and desolation. 
Just beyond the equator, off the coast of New Guinea, Ivan and his traveling companion sights a huge vessel to work. Fishing operations are continuing unabated, day and night. The next morning a boat reaches the yacht of Ivan, who feared pirate attack, but the Malaysian fishermen who are on board the offer instead fruit and preserves, as well as five large sacks full of fish of all kinds. 
"They explained that it was only a small portion of fish a day, which was only interested in their tuna and everything else was thrown back into the sea by garbage. Virtually combing the seabed day and night and spoiled them of all forms of life. "
After having surpassed Japan, the Pacific Ocean is presented before the eyes of Ivan as a huge dump: thousands of plastic buoys, cables, nets and fishing lines, patches of oil and fuel, chemical foam benches, bottles, bags and pieces of furniture of all kinds. Many of these materials had been dragged into the open sea by the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Ivan The boat moves with difficulty in the middle of this expanse of waste and night navigation becomes unthinkable. In addition, the bright yellow that covered the hull, which has stood for years in the sun and weather, for the first time shows signs of unusual discoloration.

The seas and oceans that surround us are not only an expanse of waves to cool down during the hot season, or a lovely setting to capture in our holiday photos. They are the source of life and sustenance, the essential motor of the global ecosystem on which we all depend. This applies both to the immense Pacific Ocean, as per our limited Mediterranean Sea. Research conducted by Greenpeace and Spanish environmental organization Oceana in 2009 ruled that the Mediterranean Sea is the most polluted sea in the world. Among the causes of this disaster there are industrial discharges of the countries that surround it, the trade routes that pass through it and the urban sprawl, often fueled by mass tourism. Oceana has calculated that each year are illegally dumped in its waters 400 000 tonnes of oil, while the seabed would be deposited waste on average 1935 per square kilometer, which is the highest density of all the deep ocean on the planet. 
The education in respect of the marine environment is a moral and civic duty for each of us. I just hope to teach our children what constitutes the essential commodity sea we can continue to use the geography books, and not those of history ...