Visualizing Environmental Science

Critical and Creative Thinking Questions 295

9. In 2010, what proportion of the fishery food supply was
   provided by aquaculture in the entire world? in China? in the
   world excluding China?


10. What overall trends in fishery food supply, from both
    aquaculture and capture, were exhibited by China, and by
    the rest of the world, between 1970 and 1990? between
    1990 and 2010? What role do regional differences in
    aquaculture production play in these trends?

 This biochemist is studying cuttings of bleached coral in

the Indian Ocean.

Why are bleached corals pale?

 What sort of human impacts cause coral bleaching?

 Is the occurrence of coral bleaching likely to increase or

decrease? Why?

What is happening in this

picture?

Critical and Creative Thinking Questions

1. How do ocean currents affect climate on land? In particular,
   describe the role of the ocean conveyor belt.


2. Compare the different global effects of El Niño with those
   of La Niña. How are the two events similar? How are they
   different?


3. Identify which of the ocean
   life zones at right would be
   home to each of the following
   organisms: giant squid, kelp,
   tuna, and mussels. Explain your
   answers.


4. The use of plastic shopping
   bags has been banned in
   many U.S. cities, including
   Los Angeles and Washington,
   DC, and statewide in Hawaii.
   How might these bans
   influence human impacts on
   the ocean?


5. Describe the global character of the ocean and its importance
   to life on Earth in terms of the effects of mismanagement of the
   bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean or the expansion of the
   Gulf of Mexico dead zone.


6. Imagine that you live in a small Atlantic coast community
   where a company wants to set up an aquaculture facility
   in a salt marsh. What are its benefits and its environmental
   drawbacks? Would you support or oppose this proposal?
   Explain your answer.


7. If global climate change trends continue, why might Italy
   grow cooler, and how would impacts on the ocean trigger
   that change?


8. Which U.N. treaty might impose limits on the number of
   fishing vessels allowed to catch tuna in international
   waters?

Benthic environment

Intertidal zone

Pelagic environment

✓✓THE PLANNER

Use graph to answer questions 9–10.

GLOBAL

LOCAL

11. Assess your personal seafood consumption, or that
    of a friend or family member. Which species do you
    eat? Where and how are they obtained? Research
    these details by investigating online the Monterey
    Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch© Program. List possible
    impacts to the ocean from your seafood consumption,
    and identify choices you might make to reduce them.

Sustainable Citizen Question

70

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

80 90 00 10 70 80 90 00 10 70 80 90 00 10

Aquaculture

Capture

(wild catch)

Year Year Year

Fishery food supply (kg/person)

World China World excluding China

Adapted from FAO, Figure 35,

The State of World Fisheries and

Aquaculture

(2012).

Alexis Rosenfeld/Science Source