Life Below water –  is one of the most important sustainable development goals set by United Naiton Development Programme. Designated as goal 14 SDG, it aims to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, as well as address the impacts of ocean acidification.

To understand the Life below water we need to understand our marine ecosystem and how its habitants get affected because of uncontrollable action by human beings. Marine ecosystems include salt marshes, mudflats, seagrass meadows,  Mangroves and coral reefs. The magnitude of light, water depth, proximity to land, and topographic complexity all affect marine habitats.

Marine ecosystems are the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems and its waters have a high salt content. Oceans make up 71 percent of the Earth's surface. The salinity of the oceans is both human induced as well as naturally driven by evaporation, rainfall, and the flow of rivers into the sea.

Man is highly dependent on marine and coastal biodiversity  for their livelihoods but Marine ecosystem is reaching alarming levels due to overexploitation of fish stocks and marine pollution as an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic litter are found in ocean in every square kilometer.

Besides plastic pollution our marine eco system is also getting affected by over fishing, that is when fishermen catch more fish than the ocean can produce. Bottom trawling is another notorious industrial fishing method to catch large amounts of fish. It involves dragging a large net with a heavy weight across the sea floor which indiscriminately catches every life and object it encounters on its way, killing fishes, turtles, sea cod, shrimp, sole, marine mammals etc. It destroys large amount of sea floor habitats and vegetation that serves as food and shelter for marine species.

Marine eco system supports plethora of life under water with a variety of its habitat. Marine conservation institutes need to firm up policies and take stringent action against the issues that affect its existence. We need to manage such a crucial vital source for the humanity as a whole as well as to offset the effects of climate change.

Credits—undp.org, britttanica, national geographic, photo- national geographic