Chapter Four

SUGGESTED TEACHING ACTIVITIES: MARINE BIOSPHERE AND FOOD PRODUCTION

4.33 MARINE INVESTIGATIONS

Divide the class into teams and ask the teams to draw marine pollutant research topics from a hat. The topics could include:
  • heavy metals
  • human sewage
  • oil spills and contamination
  • natural toxins such as "Red Tide"
  • pulp mill effluents
  • mine tailings and waste water
  • dumping of municipal solid wastes (garbage)
  • plastics

Each team should prepare a report outlining the environmental problems posed by each category of marine pollutant, its significance for human health, and possible means of reducing the hazard or problem for each. Students could indicate areas where these problems exist on a large map of Canada by using different coloured map pins to identify each of the different categories of pollutant.

4.34 WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR FISHERIES?

What is the current importance of the marine fishery to Canada's economy? Find out how many people are directly and indirectly employed (or formerly employed), the dollar value of products, and the significance of sea products as food. Students could select specific fisheries and look at how they have changed since World War II: Atlantic cod, bottom fish on the Atlantic coast, lobster, shellfish, Pacific salmon, crab, prawn and shrimp, Pacific bottom fish and halibut, herring and roe herring. The teams would each make presentations and then the class could develop a consensus report entitled, "Canada's Fisheries - Past, Present, and Future." The report should include reasons for fish stock decline; for example, over-fishing, climate change, oceanographic change?

Have students explore the significance of marine fisheries to the world food supply. How does fish consumption and the economic importance of the fishery in Canada compare to the fisheries in other countries such as Japan, Russia, Great Britain, Indonesia, Peru, or Mexico? Which countries are major users of fishing technologies such as drift nets, and factory ships which use bottom trawls and other large scale fishing techniques? Which of these countries have major fisheries in Canada's offshore waters (See Appendix 1-Sample Lesson Plans for a detailed description of this activity.)?

4.35 WASTE IN OUR OCEANS

A number of countries use the ocean as a major dumping ground. A team of students could investigate the countries that are the most important "dumpers" into the ocean. What sorts of wastes are dumped? What is known about the environmental impacts of large scale marine waste disposal?

4.36 CORAL REEFS

Coral reefs are among the most important habitats for conservation of biodiversity. They are the "tropical rainforests" of the sea. Locate the world's major coral reef areas on a world map and have student teams investigate the current status of the coral reef communities in major world regions: South and Mid-Pacific, South East Asia, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Australia. What threats are there for coral reef ecology and what is being done to protect these complex habitats?

TABLE OF CONTENTS | CHAPTER ONE: WHAT IS GLOBAL CHANGE? | CHAPTER TWO: WHY IS GLOBAL CHANGE IMPORTANT TO CANADA | CHAPTER THREE: THE CAUSES OF GLOBAL CHANGE | CHAPTER FOUR: THE CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBAL CHANGE | CHAPTER FIVE: HOW WILL GLOBAL CHANGE AFFECT SOCIETY? | CHAPTER SIX: CANADIAN RESPONSES TO GLOBAL CHANGE | APPENDIX | TABLE OF CONTENTS | CREDITS

GO TO NEXT SECTION

GO TO LAST SECTION