Ecotourism - Social Studies

What is ecotourism?

Ecotourism is officially defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people and involves interpretation and education. Its foremost purpose is uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. (TIES, 2015). Additionally, ecotourism provides numerous advantages to our circumstances as it enhances cultural and environmental awareness, promotes employment and financial opportunities for local people, encourages conservation, and focuses on unadulterated, pristine natural environments. Ecotourism provides both positive and beneficial outcomes for the world, unlike tourism. Tourism, as a whole, has negatively altered the natural beauty of certain places. They have troubled natural resources through over-consumption, frequently in regions where resources are previously limited. 

Why is it a growing trend?

As our generation proceeds to modernize our world, we forget that our natural resources are depleting simultaneously as we expand our world to modern technologies. While this issue continues, ecotourism is now being practised all over the planet, gaining popularity. Furthermore, it continues to grow in trend since it has provided several benefits to the locals and economy. 

How can tourism help our ocean?

One of the benefits ecotourism offers was environmental awareness this; has increased the ecological concerns of locals and has improved biodiversity and marine conservation. 

Overfishing - Social Studies

Today in Social Studies, we were tasked to make a lawyer's paragraph about overfishing. Overfishing is an ongoing issue that is currently threatening our ecosystem, along with the life within it. Anyway, here is the lawyer paragraph. 

lawyer's Paragraph of Overfishing:

Overfishing has a vast of negative consequences to our ecosystem. We must take action on the said topic, as it been rampant in all parts of the globe. Countless people rely on fishing as their foremost source of income. However, with the fish population decreasing, fishing jobs will shift, becoming scarcer, inducing people to lose jobs. Our ocean is one of the most significant sources of food and other resources; losing our ocean could perhaps be the cause of our extinction. Overfishing can cause the overpopulation of different species. When sharks were overexploited by South American inlets, this produced the overpopulation of jellyfish; which resulted in unsafe waters for both humans and marine life. As beforementioned, there are vast negative impacts to our ecosystem from overfishing. Such as a disruption to the food chain. As numerous fish are removed from the ocean, it creates an asymmetry that can lessen the food web and direct to a loss of other significant marine life, including vulnerable species like sea turtles and corals. Overfishing might have resolved short-term solutions to humanity's food shortage. Nevertheless, it's the long term consequences that we must now subdue to fix our ocean for future generations. 

Wananga Reflection - Matariki

From the recent celebration of Matariki, we have been learning more about the story of Matariki during our wananga time. Matariki is celebrated from the 19th of June to the 11th of July. The term Matariki refers to 'tiny eyes or 'eys of God' in Maori. The children of the earth mother, Papatuanuku, and the sky father Ranginui wanted to separate them to bring light and life to the Earth, as they lived in darkness wondering what it would be like to live in the light. Eventually, Tane Mahuta, the god of the forest, laid on his back and used his feet to force them apart. Angering Tawhirimatea, the god of the winds, causing him to tore his own eyes out and threw them out into the sky. Tawhirimatea's resulted in many constellations, and among lived Matariki, the mother and her six daughters. 

Sustainable Fishing

Is sustainability even possible? Surprisingly, I do believe that sustainable fishing will be possible; as long we all contribute to the idea of being sustainable. A large scale of commercial fishing services can be held accountable for overfishing, as they use different fishing methods such as; purse seining and longlining, which can cause bycatch. Fishers remove more than 77 billion kilograms (170 billion pounds) of marine life each year. Catching too many fish can reduce the fish's population and be unable to replace itself through reproduction. However, it will be challenging to shift to sustainable fishing, as fishing won't be as efficient. Nevertheless, it is still possible as long as we employ restrictions through the consumption of seafood. Aswell, as using different methods of fishing such as; spearfishing and farm fishing. 

How is commercial fishing a threat to dolphins and birdlife (bycatch)? Commercial fishing has a vast influence on marine life, as they are captured and killed; accidentally. Birdlife is also affected by this around; 300,000 seabirds drown each year after diving for bait set on longlines and becoming hooked. 

Kasunduan - English Short Film

For the past few weeks on English, we have been working on creating our short films. We had to work on our films as a small group while re-imagining the trial scene from The Merchant of Venice, a 16th-century play written by William Shakespeare. The films included various filming methods, such as full shot, long shot, pan, close up, extreme close up, mid-shot, and two more of our choice. Additionally, it had to be around 5 minutes or less. 

The first step to creating our films was to organize our groups. We were fortunate enough to choose our groups; our group included Skyler, Janel, Shiela, Axle and me. Afterwards, we began plotting and planning our films and how we were going to re-imagine the court scene from The Merchant of Venice. Axle had an idea of taking inspirations from scenes of other movies, such as "The Godfather" and "John Wick". The main idea of our film, related to "oaths", which we re-imagined from The Merchant of Venice.

During the filming of our short movie, we have used several camera techniques such as the techniques above; and two different ones. The two distinct methods we used were "Eye Level" and "Over The Shoulder" angles. It was rather challenging to keep a neutral face during the filming, as it was hard to stay serious and not laugh during the scenes. If I were to do this project again, I would have probably tried harder on my scenes to make the film look better. Anyway, here is the final product!

Kasunduan

Prezi Presentation - Sustainable Fishing

Continuing on our Social Studies topic, "Trashing The Planet", we were tasked to create a presentation on sustainable fishing using an unfamiliar software called "Prezi". It was a unique software that was quite challenging to use, however, once I got used to it, I managed to complete my presentation on the said topic. The presentation contained four significant areas to research. These areas are; commercial fishing threatening the ecosystem, by-catch, dolphin-safe labels, and sustainable ways of fishing. Each topic had to be answered using paragraphs strategies; to increase our understanding of how to create paragraphs. Anyway, here is the presentation.

Shark Finning

What is shark finning?

Shark finning is a gruesome practice where a live shark's fins are cut off and harvested. Meanwhile, the rest of the shark is discarded and thrown back into the ocean. Being unable to swim effectively, they sink into the bottom of the ocean to slowly die painfully. 

Shark finning delicacy:

The shark's fins are the key ingredient to a well-known Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup. A delicacy with a purpose, to assert one's rank and privilege, as a soup cost around US$100. Consumed during major events such as weddings, birthdays, business banquets and during Chinese New Year celebrations. A tasteless cuisine with no nutritional value. 

How is it impacting our oceans?

During the past 20 years or so, the desire for shark-fin soup has soared. Every year around 73 million sharks are slaughtered for shark fin soup. Due to its non-selective slaughter, it has driven several species to the verge of extinction. Sharks are apex predators that can control species abundance, distribution and diversity, which can influence the health of marine habitats. With the decline of shark species, smaller fish would increase in population since no one is consuming them; the food chain would then collapse and, underwater habitats would undergo consequential damage.