As the Waves Crash Down, the Rest of the World Follows

When I was younger, the ocean was always a sign of relaxation and fun, seeing how I

3rarely and in the vicinity of an ocean. The reflection of the sun beating off the rigid water made

the water looks as if it were almost frozen; yet the moving ways always keep in motion. Its vast

area stretches as far as the eye can see, making the brain even wonder where it ends. Curiosity

always comes to mind when I think of the ocean, for so many things about it remain a mystery.

Controlling more than half of the earth’s surface area, it is the largest single home in the world.

Trillions of different creatures live beneath the cold salty surface, living in different complex

ecosystems in which the ocean has become a habitat. Its salty taste and strong waves protect

these habitats from land intruders, but since the technological advances in water travel, only

massive storms can protect them now.

Though the water is cold, and the waves are harsh, I still feel warm whenever I am near

an ocean. It makes me feel good that something so natural and simple can make so many people

happy. I always thought it was weird that the ocean had waves. I felt that it was naturally trying

to keep us out, like it was protecting something. People can walk right into the waves, get tossed

around, and send back to the shores on their backs, with an urge to continue. It is like watching a

dog fetch a stick, something so simple to us on a large scale, can actually amuse us when we

aren’t aware. When looked at on a large scale, the ocean is really a big anti-social bully, who

neglects all people by throwing them under its large waves, and sending them back to the sands.

If the ocean were in high school, it would a hard time making friends. Yet, people day in and day

out, continue to pursue the ocean, taking heavy strides through the thick undertow, just to get

tossed around and end up back at shore. Each time I return to the ocean, I always think to myself,
“Does anybody actually think they can get past the waves? Does anybody go into the ocean

looking to conquer?” The answer is always no. Nobody is trying to beat the ocean, become the

best, go where no man has gone before. They are all expecting to get tossed and thrown, just as

everyone else has, just as everyone else will. Man may not realize it, but they actually pursue

getting beat up. The reason, it remains just one of the many questions the ocean beholds, but that

is why curiosity is a following of the ocean.

As a child, the sandy beaches of the Pacific Ocean seemed as a place for excitement and

pleasure, visiting on vacations and holidays. Having family that lived on the coast of Malibu

beach, the beach and ocean was completely at my disposal. Spending hours with my family lying

on the beach, listening to the powerful waves crash, and sometimes even trying to jump them.

I was not an ignorant child, and I was aware that on occasion human waste would

eventually lead to the ocean, but my parents always reassured me that it was treated so that the

water in the ocean would still be clean enough for me to play in. The curiosity sprouted after

watching the movie Titanic, making me believe that I was swimming where all the victims died.

They said that the salt purified the ocean water, making it clean and all right for me to use for my

own enjoyment.

I took their word for it, and for years I would come back to the same beach to vacation.

People continued to surf, swim, and boogie board like nothing had changed. The water was still

the same blue-green color it had been the year before. Every year I became more

environmentally aware, learning more in science classes, and applying to my everyday life. We

never learned about the Ocean ever changing from the mass habitat that it was for possibly

billions of different species of amphibious creatures. The earth was heating, the glaciers were
melting, the rainforests were disappearing, endangered species were being lost every month…but

the ocean remained the same.

January 1st, 2001, the day that put the world’s environmental problems in perspective.

Walking out on the beach in the early mornings of the New Year, I witnessed a sight that would

boggle most minds. Hundreds of small fish lined the shoreline where the tide had risen to the

previous night before. The foul odor of dead fish filled my nostrils, and my mind pondered what

the real truth was about the water. How could I not see this coming? The entire world was

changing; it was ignorant of me not to see that the largest habitat in the world was not feeling any

after effect. The truth was finally in sight, and the corpse of the hundreds of fish that lined

Malibu beach were signals of changing times.

The once almighty ocean is no longer its strong self, and though Human interference is

the cause, there are still ways that we can save the most important ecological system on our

planet. The laws of nature are against us, and all of our waste just pours into the Oceans, which

needs to be regulated. As a civilization, the humans need to control all waste management that

are anywhere near a running body of water, because the odds of that water flowing into an Ocean

are extremely high. The chemical age has brought even more harm to this massive ecosystem,

and the more we continue to wash them into the water cycle, the harder it will be to reverse the

damage that we have already done.

The myth that the Ocean is indestructible needs to silenced, and the truth about our

pollution needs to be internationally expressed. The fish industry, which accounts for over one

third of all meat consumed by humans, is being destroyed by our own pollution. The fish are

becoming contaminated and killed by our ignorance, and the only way to save our world would
be to stop pollution the Oceans. The world is already running out of fresh water as it is, which

will eventually lead to our reliance on the Ocean water for survival. We have the technology to

purify saltwater, but the costs of energy and production are just not plausible or economic for

regular use yet. The more we continue to pollute and destroy the oceans that we have, the harder

we are making life for the future generations. The time when freshwater is no longer existent is

in the near future, and our ignorance and inability to see ahead to the future could lead to a mass

extinction to the human species.