Beautiful JUST BEAUTIFUL!!

The Ocean is beautiful, except if you're in it w/o a boat!!

• VIEW THE BEAUTY OF WHAT GOD HAS CREATED
• Area: about 140 million square miles (362 million sq km), or nearly 71% of the Earth's surface.
• Average Depth: 12,200 feet (3,720 m).
• Deepest point: 36,198 feet (11,033 m) in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.
• More than 97% of all our planet's water is contained in the ocean
• The worlds oceans contain nearly 20 million tons of gold
• The color blue is least absorbed by seawater; the same shade of blue is most absorbed by microscopic plants, called phytoplankton, drifting in seawater
• A swallow of seawater may contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton
• Eighty per cent of all pollution in seas and oceans comes from land-based activities.

• Fishing for wild shrimp represents 2 per cent of global seafood but one-third of total by-catch. The ratio of by-catch from shrimp fishing ranges from 5:1 in temperate zones to 10:1 and more in the tropics.
• The annual global by-catch mortality of small whales, dolphins and porpoises alone is estimated to be more than 300,000 individuals.
• As many as 100 million sharks are killed each year for their meat and fins, which are used for shark fin soup. Hunters typically catch the sharks, de-fin them while alive and throw them back into the ocean where they either drown or bleed to death.
• Each year, illegal longline fishing, which involves lines up to 80 miles long, with thousands of baited hooks, kills over 300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses.
• Fish supply the greatest percentage of the world's protein consumed by humans

• Populations of commercially attractive large fish, such as tuna, cod, swordfish and marlin have declined by as much as 90 per cent in the past century.
• More than 3.5 billion people depend on the ocean for their primary source of food. In 20 years, this number could double to 7 billion.
• Most of the world's major fisheries are being fished at levels above their maximum sustainable yield; some regions are severely overfished
• More oil reaches the oceans each year as a result of leaking automobiles and other non-point sources than was spilled in Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez
• The average temperature of the oceans is 2ºC, about 39ºF

• xtreme ocean storms have ramped up in frequency over the past 30 years, according to new research based on small tremors.
• The faint tremors, called microseisms, are periodic movements of Earth's surface that can last anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds.
• Unlike earthquakes, which are caused by movements of Earth's tectonic plates, microseisms are created by the incessant beating of waves along the coasts.
• The phenomena are usually dismissed as background noise by scientists studying earthquake readings.
• "The gist is that we monitor pervasive seismic tremors observed around the world that arise from wind-generated waves to [assess] Earth's wave climate," said study co-author Richard Aster, a geophysics professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

STORMY OCEANS ABOVE, PEOPLE OUT IN THE OPEN OCEAN BELOW!!

• Most People use over 16,000 gallons of water in their lifetimes, or 2.5 quarts per day
• There are about 350 different types of sharks, but researchers think there are other sharks that haven't been discovered yet!
• The dwarf shark is as small as your hand, while the whale shark can be as large as a school bus!
• A shark is one of the best hunters in the world. Even their little pups go out looking for food.
• A shark's hunger can be satisfied with one good meal. The meal can last a long time because a shark uses little energy to swim. Some sharks hold food in their stomachs without it being digested. If they eat a big meal, it can last three or more months!
• Sharks do not sleep the same way as humans do. They might seem as if they are sleeping but they are really just resting!
• Sharks are strong, healthy creatures. No other living thing can take better care of itself than a shark can! Like humans, sharks are at the top of the food chain.
• Sharks never get cancer! Their cartilage is used in being studied with the hope of developing anti-cancer drugs.
• Sharks have been around for more than 300 million years! They were around before dinosaurs!
• Sharks' bodies are heavier than the sea, so if they stop moving they sink. If they want to stay afloat, they must keep moving!
• Just as humans rule the land, sharks rule the sea! Many people fear sharks, because they hear stories about sharks killing and eating humans. Actually, most sharks are not dangerous!
• More people are killed by bee stings than by shark attacks.
• More than 90% of people who are attacked by sharks survive the attack.
• Sharks attack more men than women. No one knows why this is the case.
• The bull shark is the only shark that can live in both fresh and salt water. A bull shark may have been responsible for a shark attack that happened in a creek in New Jersey back in 1916.
• The largest shark teeth found belonged to a Carcharodon Magaloden shark and are 6 inches long. This shark is extinct and lived more than 4.5 million years ago.