Why do we hear so little about the Indian Ocean? In my part of the world, we talk mostly about the Pacific (to the west of us) and the Atlantic (to the east of us). What should we know about the Indian Ocean?
The shape of the Indian Ocean is like a huge letter "M" ............
- is the only ocean named after a country--India.
- is known as a closed ocean, because it is land-locked to its north by the continent of Asia.
- is bounded by the continents of Asia to the north and Africa to the west. Australia is to its east.
- covers 1/5th of the Earth's total ocean area.
- is the youngest of the 3 largest oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian).
- is on average 12,274 feet deep. Its maximum depth in the Sunda Trench off the coast of Java is 24,442 feet.
- has 1,200 Islands, including Madagascar, which is the 4th largest island on Earth.
- is a crucial migration route for various marine animals, including humpback whales.
- The easternmost part of the Indian Ocean is known for its marine biodiversity. It provides home to many endangered sea species, such as turtles, seals and sea cows.
- A 2018 IPCC report explored the ocean's potential to meet the world's renewable energy needs by generating energy from waves and ocean currents. This is a theoretical potential.
- The Suez Canal in Egypt and the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia are the two most well known waterways in the Indian Ocean.
- The Northern Indian Ocean is the most important transport route for oil, as it connects the oil-rich countries of the Middle East with Asia. Every day tankers carry 17 million barrels of crude oil from the Persian Gulf on its waters. 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean.
- North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean is home to the Sentinelese, the most isolated people on Earth. It is illegal to sail within 3 miles of the island. The Indian government has established a protective exclusion zone around the island to prevent unauthorized access and to protect the Sentinelese.
- They are one of the last tribes in the world and fiercely protect their isolation, often aggressively halting any attempts to visit them. Anthropologists and others have tried to approach them, but have been met with resistance and hostility.
- Their language is unclassified and not understood by outsiders.
From a single visit to the village in 1967, we know they live in lean-to huts with slanted roofs. These huts face one another, with tended fires outside each one. The Sentinelese build narrow outrigger canoes that they maneuver with long poles in the shallow calm waters inside the reef. They probably live on fruits and wild tubers that grow on the island, eggs from seagulls or turtles, fish and small game. They carry bows and arrows, as well as spears and knives. Unwelcome visitors can attest to their skill with these weapons.The Sentinelese people - Ship crewmen anchored near the Island in the mid-1990s described bonfires on the beach at night and the sounds of people singing.
- My curiosity screams to learn more about this isolated tribe. Imagine how great it would be to see inside their world, their daily lives, their behaviors, their skills, their family lives, everything. Their existence alone is enough to make the Indian Ocean a place of monumental intrigue.
- The Indian Ocean is home to some of the world's most important trading ports on different continents. The ports of Mumbai, Kolkata, Colombo, Durban, Jakarta and Melbourne are all located on the Indian Ocean.
- Scientists claim they've discovered a lost continent under the Indian Ocean. They've named is Mauritia.
- Sadly, the Indian Ocean has a major garbage problem. It's not a solid island of trash, but rather a cloud of plastic particles, chemical sludge, and other debris, much of which is microscopic. The garbage patch contributes to the ocean's pollution, with the plastic breaking down into micro plastics that can eventually enter the food chain. The ocean's currents, including the monsoon winds, influence where the debris moves, sometimes from the Australian side to the African side, and back again.
- The garbage patch's fragmented debris, makes cleanup efforts very difficult.
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| North Sentinel Island in Indian Ocean |
Sidebar: Our oceans reflect the rest of our world. If our oceans are over-polluted, what does that say about us? One thing for certain, there is a tribe of Sentinelese people who choose to isolate themselves from the rest of us......they are the only ones who cannot be blamed for polluting the ocean waters with plastic.
The sobering part of today's spotlight post is that plastic pollution is continuously contaminating the critical elements of survival......is causing known and unknown illnesses.....while at the same time, is nurturing and promoting the most destructive industries on Earth.
