By Nathan Nwakamma

The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and FishNet Alliance have called for the protection of oceans as a panacea to sustain planet Earth.

The two organisations made the call on Sunday as part of activities to commemorate the 2025 World Ocean Day.

Miss Kome Odhomor, Media/Communications Lead at HOMEF, quoted Dr Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, HOMEF, an ecology focused group, as saying that the oceans play significant roles in environmental and climate systems.

Bassey also underscored the importance of the World Ocean Day, celebrated annually on June 8, to drum support for the protection of oceans.

He noted that the oceans and other water bodies were continuously subjected to barrage of assaults at local, national, and international levels.

According to him, the concept that the ocean recycles itself and acts as a greenhouse gas sink has been misconstrued to mean that the ocean can filter and clean itself no matter what is dumped in it.

“The oceans and other water bodies have become dumpsites for all sorts of polluting and extreme exploitation.

“There are several unusual activities going on in our waters that must not be allowed to continue if we want a healthy ocean and planet.”

Bassey also said that corporate interests have been substituted for national and people-centred interests, as communities living along the coasts bear the brunt of such abnormalities.

“Now is the time for all to rise to the occasion to protect the oceans. The continued burning of the Ororo Oil well over a period of five years is a sad commentary on our waters,” he said.

The HOMEF executive director further said that beyond the ocean’s diverse faces, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern, the ocean was connected to and interacts with other comparatively smaller surface water bodies, like the seas, gulfs, bays, lagoons, estuaries, and groundwater systems.

He explained that the oceans ecosystems supply a substantial amount of oxygen to the atmosphere and offer various services that ensure the survival of all species on Earth.

He noted that as the world observes World Ocean Day with the theme “Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us”, it was time for humans to reflect on their exploitative, violent, and destructive relationship with the ocean and embrace a new beginning.

Similarly, Stephen Oduware, Coordinator of the Fishnet Alliance, a network of fishers across Africa, said that industrial fishing takes place in the ocean.

“The two major sides of the ocean bordering Africa, the Atlantic and Indian, along with their associated gulfs, are experiencing shortfalls in fishing due to vested and powerful interests.

“Industrial fishing, including the use of bottom trawlers, is partly responsible for unsustainable fishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the region.

“These practices not only harm fishes but also harm the ocean and create imbalances in the ecosystems the ocean supports.

“These unchecked activities in the territorial waters of Africa must stop.

“Let’s protect the ocean and force others to respect it because we are the ocean; we are part of the ocean family,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Deborah Coker