An adventure of Marco Corales and Juanita Yubarta

THE BLUE TREASUREFirst Edition

SECRETARIA EJECUTIVACOMISIÓN COLOMBIANA DEL OCÉANO

Original TextVicealmirante (AR)

Orlando Malaver Calderon

Literary adaptationCelso Román Campos

IllustrationsGiberto Mendoza Barón, Nohora Mendoza Barón,

Luisa Ballesteros Meza

Design and layoutNohora Mendoza Barón

2000

Second EditionSECRETARIA EJECUTIVA

COMISIÓN COLOMBIANO DEL OCÉANO

CN Esteban Uribe Álzate

CN Gustavo Adolfo Ángel Sanin

Editor Clara Lucia Delgado Murillo

Design and layoutBernardo Arias

Digitos y Diseños S.A.S

LayoutImprenta Nacional de Colombia

PrintImprenta Nacional de Colombia

ISBN: 978-958-99695-6-4

All Right Reserved

©

Colombia

Content

Presentation 5

A distress call 7

A hidden and wonderful world 21

Movements in the Ocean full of life 33

Life on the coast 49

Paradise in the Ocean: treasures found 57

Benefits of the Ocean 69

My commitment with the Ocean 74

ARMADA NACIONALNAVEGA NUESTRO ORGULLO

Presentation

W e understand that the need´s of children and youth in Colombia, to acquire a true Maritime Awareness, translated into knowledge and interest in all matters relating to the Sea and its

benefits, the role for life on the planet, as well their frailties and the dangers they are exposed, we wanted to contribute to this purpose through the development of this tale entitled The Blue Treasure.

It´s an adventure, written in simple language and entertaining, which readers will be immersed in the magical and wonderful world of the Ocean: understand it´s secrets, understand it´s phenomena will learn to know, appreciate, love, protect and maintain, especially coastal and marine areas with which Colombia has been privileged spaces reach approximately nine hundred thousand square kilometers of marine waters and 2800 km of coastline on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.

We are optimistic in thinking that the century will begins with Maritime Development in Colombia, where the younger generation which is directed towards this work, will be the promoters of the urgent need to change the attitude Mediterranean for many years has Colombia back to the Sea and that is to redirect the course towards sustainable comprehensive development of this immense source of wealth, which should enable human survival in the coming centuries.

5

6

The Sea asked for help with a voice made of waves, foam and salt ...A cool breeze down heeded the call of the waters. It came from the snowy peaks of Citurna,-the mountain covered with snow the white

head poking through the clouds, as uniting the Caribbean sky. Serankúa was the breath of the spirit created the world according to the mythology of the Kogi Indians.

The palm trees, caressed by the hand of God, shook her hair on the shore of the Sea at the base of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. The morning sun and the song of the waves, allowed see the silhouette of Serankúa made of foam that broke up when the waves against the granite boulders on the beaches of the place, called Tayrona.

--¿Did you call me?, asked the voice of God with his light.

--Yes, replied the Caribbean, my brothers and I, the world’s oceans, need help; our treasure is to be lost. Look who we want to save him before it is too late and fall into the hands of...

7

A DISTRESS CALL

8

Cannot say anything more, water a sudden scream and a dark cloud in the distance silenced. They stood still, as if she would have fainted. Serankúa tried to awaken the Sea with all the magic of the Kogi, but in vain.

--This is very worrying ¿To fall into the hands of whom? ¿Who would steal the treasure of the seas?

Ask the God, as he climbed down the road the sun with morning light. He wanted to see the world from above, it was necessary to find help. ¿Where there might be someone with love and wisdom to find the answer you need the Oceans?

He climbed the ladder of Golden Dawn and stared at the Earth from above. It looked so beautiful planet, round like a blue jewel adorned with swirls of clouds. He looked at it carefully, slowly turn was enthralled watching him throughout the day, thinking that geographers and navigators, to know better, have been divided into two equal-Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, up and down a Ecuador called imaginary line running from East to West around the waist of the Earth.

9

He looked carefully where to find help. He peered closely at each end of the hemispheres where the North Pole and South Pole, always icy cold there. Here lived polar bears, seals and penguins nice addition to arctic foxes, white ptarmigans and even shaggy musk oxen, all good will, but too warm to leave their homes with snow.

--!I know, has to be someone of the Sea, who knows and loves, because only can love what you know deep, thought Serankùa.

He moved a little closer to the planet and the vast blue of the Ocean heard a song. It was a love song that came from the depths and the water ran over miles and miles.

--Water is my house, water should be called my planet, water is life, water is love that binds me all, said the song, released in deep and sweet vibrations.

--So that’s where I have to seek help because it seems that there is the love song…

Thought Serankúa and flew very near the Gorgona Island, and indeed, there came the music.

--Water is my house, salt is immense and Ocean is called, said the voice.

--Juanita Yubarta is right; our planet should be called OCEAN PLANET, no EARTH PLANET…

Said a little old man with big nose, frogman suit and hat wool sailor. His name was Jaime Costas and had been living in the Sea as one of its kind spirits, riding on a dolphin, was co-worker throughout his life, Jacques Cousteau, a researcher Marine French Navy Officer and a great oceanographer, one of the scientists who study the oceans through science called precisely OCEANOGRAPHY.

10

--I need urgently to the beautiful singer... ¿Juanita as you said that last name? Serankúa questioned.

--Yubarta, its pleasant orders…She said with a snort of steam a huge whale that emerged from the bottom of the water, jumped in a cloud of foam, gave a gasp of joy and greeted then with a flick of his fin immense.

--Juanita is the singer and knows the secret of the Sea. The world’s wisdom is contained in the songs of whales. Listen dear Serankúa, said the old man Jaime Costas.

--Only one is and is divided into ten, five are of dirt; five are of water the water is divided into seas and carry them in my songs...

--Oceans and continents, is what it says Juanita: sometimes he likes to sing in riddles, said Jaime.

--!!!Juanita, the oceans need your help, something serious is happening, the oceans are sick and someone wants to steal their treasures. We must do something, because the Caribbean was sick this morning, and stopped talking. Said Serankúa alarmed, and when the sun falls I must go home in the sacred lakes. The time is just me. I need to come with me because, I need to find another assistant!

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--Serankúa Sure, Jaimito and I heard this morning a terrible cry that filled us with awe and watched the sky darkened momentarily could not avoid a shudder to remember it again, but ¿How can I help you?

--Life itself will tell you what to do; you’ll have to wear a costume while helping me… Said Serankúa and extended his hand full of light, surrounded with golden sparkles to the whale, making it a chubby girl, who spoke about singing a sweet voice and wore a blue dress painted with innumerable marine animals.

Costas, the old man took off a necklace made of pieces of coral, handed it to him and tell that was the gift for his traveling companion, and could also be useful in case of need. Juanita put it in the neck and felt a pleasant sense of security. The collar at the time would tell who was chosen to accompany it.

--We must go now, assure Serankúa, the day is ending and I should be in my sacred lake before the stars come out.

They flew over the evening and arrived in Santa Marta when it was getting dark. The God of the Kogi, left Juanita Yubarta near a fishing village in the small Bay of Taganga, and went like a caravan of fireflies to their sacred lakes of the Sierra Nevada.

13

In the cool night fishermen playing dominoes or chatting mending their nets. From the darkness Juanita heard them speaking softly, so that children would not learn of the difficulties encountered in recent times, something happened to the Sea, fishing scarce, and the little that was just taken out networks for broth sailor.

From house to house conversations were a like. Already with the sky full of stars passed through a window illuminated by a lamp, and felt the old man’s Costas, collar moved in his rope, glowing, as if to draw her attention, there should be the traveling companion. She looked and saw a child reading a book called The Blue Treasure. He was concentrating on a page that said:

... 510 million square miles is the planet, 71%, 361 million covered by water, and only 29% is land and continents represented by the beautiful islands...

Juanita collar came a thread of light that surrounded the world map looked at the child, and then something strange happened: Seas of drawing out and spread like a soft jelly on a tray and lots of land settled like a puzzle. The thread of light divided into four parts tray, three were water and land.

--!It’s true! Replied the child with joy and continued reading:

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...The Northern Hemisphere has more or less, 61% water or more than half, and 39% of the land, but instead the Southern Hemisphere is 81% water and 19% of land, the Southern Hemisphere is actually water...

The thread of light forms a circle that spun around creating an enlightened planet in the eyes of the child. Seas and continents took their places again so that the child will appreciate the difference. He dropped his eyes back to the text and read:

...Of the five oceans, the largest is the Pacific, which occupies half of the entire OCEAN surface, or 50% ...There are 180 million square kilometers of water, an area so large that all the continents and islands would fit there and even space left over...

The thread of light broke the world and again, on the surface of the table, picked up lots of land and water pooled on the Pacific Ocean, which was a blue square.

!It’s true! Said the boy wondered. Then read on:

...It follows the Atlantic Ocean with a size of 82 million square kilometers, the Indian Ocean with 74 million, and the rest divided between the Antarctic and the Arctic.

This time, the thread of light clusters put on the table reading the seas into four smaller blue squares.

--!Now understand, I wish to know all these seas!, Cried and watched her light beam returning to the collar of which it came. The map regained its original design.

He heard a sweet song, approached the window and his eyes met the eyes of the girl who sang.

--Water is my house, water should be called my planet, water is life, water is love.

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They greeted each other and the boy said his name was Marco Corales, and as a good son of a fisherman, knew the voices of the Sea and the song of the waves. He also felt a chill when he heard a terrifying scream this morning over there on the horizon. He was concerned about the fishermen have heard people talk of emigrating to seek his fortune in the big city because fishing was no longer to live.

Marco went to the open space of the night, under a sky full of stars. A cool breeze invited to fly and to dream.

--¿You come with me for help the seas?Juanita asked with his voice like a song that got him in the depths of the heart.

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--I do not know what I can do, said Marco ruefully, do anything because my parents and my uncles not to leave Taganga...

--Life will tell us what to do; the important thing is to have the desire to help, -said Juanita and took the child’s hand-. --!Let’s find out what happens to the Seas! for that, my dear Marco, you have to navigate to places never imagined, put the collar of the old man Costas, who will help us find the way.

So did the boy felt the force of wisdom and smiled. The collar light allow fly. Moments later sailed over the waves in the middle of the night, under the stars shone snowy white top Citurna, where Serankúa watched.

--They face a difficult task, he said, and hid in his quiet lagoon full of reflections.

East PacificRise

Chile Ridge

Atacama Trench

Falkland Escarpment

Scotia Ridge Hawai Trench

Mid-AtlanticRidge

21

A HIDDEN AND WONDERFUL WORLD

M ountains in the background, round islands, said Juanita Yubarta, let’s look at what we found at the bottom of the Seas, but this would be a very fast tour because we cannot lose a moment.

From the bottom of the Ocean grew mighty mountains whose peaks were the islands. Marco Corales had never seen anything like it. Juanita Yubarta explained that the Ocean had an average depth of 3800 meters and the deepest part was in the Pacific Ocean in the Marianas Fosse 11,035 meters. Scientists have discovered that often earthquakes occur where there are graves, for they are like cliffs into the sea, not very wide, but with thousands of kilometers long. Most were in the Pacific Ocean and few in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In addition to the Marianas were the Philippines with 10,000 meters of the Kuriles with 10,500 meters and the Chile-Peru in South America, with 8050 meters.

--¿Juanita How so? I do not understand many numbers ...My Uncle Alcides was Santa Marta to Bogota, and came saying he had traveled 800 miles. ¿Does that mean that a mass of these is like ten times the way of my Uncle one after another?

--More or less the same is very far, huge distances. Look, it’s very simple, Marco, if we placed at the bottom of the deep, the highest mountain there on the continents, which is the Everest, and has 8848 meters high, its summit would not get to peek at the surface of Ocean, because he would lack more than two miles. However, from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean stands an underwater volcano called Mauna Kea which is 9600 meters high, and that along with the volcano Mauna Loa led to the Hawai Island.

22

--¿So that means that under the Sea is higher than any mountain on earth?

--Clearly Marco, so you say, “Mountains in the background, round islands”, which overlooks the mountain is an island, in addition, of the five oceans, the Pacific is also the deepest with an average of 4282 meters, followed by the index with 3963 meters and then the Atlantic with 3926 meters.

--¿What do you mean “average”? Ask Marco

--Very simple: if you add many depths, higher and lower, and then divided by the number who joined, we average.

--I want to continue learn things, Juanita, I want to know why Sea is salty water, why there are waves, why the tides rise and then fall, I want you to tell me if all the water around the Sea is warm as in Taganga, ¿Why?

At that moment they heard a horrible scream in the middle of the night. In the distant horizon were flashes as the storm. Juanita Yubarta whale regained his form and asked great framework that would grab it firmly to investigate. Surrounded by the light of his collar, the child felt down to the bottom of the seas and realized that Juanita Yubarta spoke with thought, and his singing voice was a murmur fact that traveled across the seas. Now Marco Corales could see the answers to your questions.

Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean

AVERAGE DEPTHSOF THE OCEANS

23

As we progressed, I felt the salty Sea water was collected by having huge amounts of minerals, -such as chlorine and sodium, which, when mixed up the salt we eat our food- which over millions of years had dissolved in it. He felt the salt, -that is the amount of salt in the water-, it was the same in all regions of the Ocean, as some were saltier than others.

For example, said Juanita Yubarta is saltier offshore, in waters far from the coast and low rainfall and a lot of evaporation, in contrast, is less salty where it rains a lot, as in the equatorial region, or near coasts where rivers flow, and at the poles, where fresh water falls into the sea when the ice melts.

--¿What is warm everywhere? Ask Marco.

--No, some more hot and others cold, for example, the region located in Ecuador is warmer because the sun’s rays reach him more directly, and therefore much more heated than in the poles. It also happens that the surface waters are warmer because the sun’s rays do not reach until about 200 or 300 meters deep, the bottom, you see, it’s dark and cold.

--!I prefer the Sun, Juanita Yubarta! And the Taganga Sea, ¿Why have different colors?

The whale told Marco that the Ocean had different colors because clean water was clear, but could be seen deep blue where it was very deep, because the sunlight entering the water is dispersed giving that color; at shallower depths blue was lighter and the water was green, as in the vicinity of the San Andres Island, when the background was not as deep and had vegetation.

--In other special places, -said the wise whale- like in the Red Sea, a large volume of very tiny algae that color the tone make purchases in the Black Sea, however, the amount of mud on the bottom make it look dark.

The cry was repeated Sea and Juanita Yubarta and his friend Marco Corales stopped. A chill made them hesitate a moment, but the light of the little old coral necklace Costas returned them calm. -!Faint not, I told them blinking, looking everywhere, roam the Ocean floor!.

That was how the two friends plunged into the Sea, seeking the source of that cry of pain. At times it seemed to come from everywhere, sometimes none. Dropped guided by the light of his love for the Sea and were found in the deep underwater landscape with mountains, volcanoes, canyons, ridges and large pits.

Oceanographers like Jacques Cousteau and his friend Jaime Costas, have discovered and measured these accidents using equipment called echo sounders, to measure the depth, as well as robots and underwater vehicles, but none matched the graceful elegance of Juanita Yubarta whale with his little rider, who traveled in detail the two major regions of submerged lands. One was the Continental Margin calls and the other deep Ocean basins.

--¿Continental Margin? ¿What is that Juanita Yubarta? Asked Marco, always anxious to know where it was her friend.

--Is the portion of land that links the continents with the deep basins. The Continental Margin can be active, such as the Sea of Japan, where many volcanoes.

With its large fin, Juanita said Marco tape that looked like fire in the background of the seas, where the crust is constantly causing tremors and shaking.

--Look instead the passive: there are almost no volcanoes, and therefore very few earthquakes occur.

25

Juanita went out to sea under the water to see how Marco passive range was divided in to three parts: the shelf, slope, and the Continental skirt. The continental shelf stretching from the coast where they began to where the depth changed very strongly. There were most of the riches of the Ocean, represented in animals, plants and minerals.

Then went down the continental slope, ranging from the platform where it ended up where they started the Continental skirt, similar to the mountains. The skirt Continental was the boundary between the continental margin and deep basins plains or many thousands of feet deep. There everything seemed dark and Marco shook a little scary. Juanita Yubarta felt it and told him to calm.

--Do not worry friend, for now we will not fall further because there seems to be where the problem is. We will tour the Mid-Ocean Ridges, to see if they give us some clue as to what happens. Start with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which rises south of Greenland in the North Pole and goes through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

Led by the magical light and his desire to discover what was happening, the 64,000 miles traveled the longest underwater mountain range in the world. It was a bleak landscape rather for Marco, who was accustomed to seeing Citurna, the Sierra Nevada, the beautiful mountain on the shore of the Sea, covered with forests and crowned by snow caressed by clouds.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge had summit three thousand feet in width extending to 2000 km and had great interior valleys. They found nothing there and headed to the Big Mountain Swift-East Pacific, in that Ocean, and then to the Middle Indica Mountain, but also found nothing but the silence of the deep.

Then they turned and began to find clues in the area called Litoral or Coastal Zone. A very special region in the continent and islands, with ecological, environmental and economic value. In this region and its environs were the big cities of the world.

!Iiii, so many people! Juanita alarmed cry. This time it was she who was grieved: 3600 million people, almost 60% of the world: people and people and people of all races, all religions, all taking their food from the Sea...

26

Marco saw a tear in the eyes of Juanita. Something serious happened to all those like him, human beings, something that made suffer the Sea came from them. The grandparents, ever said that before the fish was scarce, and celebrated each year how easy it was to fill the nets with snapper, grouper, and snook... The Whale said he could not be near the beaches, some filled her with fear, and the waters were a color, smell and taste that were not appropriate.

¿Were they arrive at their destination? he magical necklace carrying the child in the neck Taganga fisherman returned to light.

--!It is a sign of danger!, Exclaimed in anguish Juanita Yubarta: seems to be a problem around here.

Start setting up the threat. They heard the anguished cry near them and saw something huge, like a dark hand that moved like a wave and pursuing a being made of water, which suddenly changed shape to avoid the threat.

--!Is my friend Plankton, let us help!. Juanita Yubarta exclaimed putting himself on guard and asking Marco to grab tightly.

27

The force of life filled with light the child and Juanita, who gave a huge leap above the waves standing between the vast, dark and menacing hand chased and changing Plankton. The glow of Marco and Juanita thought burning the monster, with a fearful cry of pain dissolved into crap floating dead waters dark and smelly remains of people drop things like garbage: plastic bags, bottles, shells, rags. ...Everything about...

Marco was embarrassed with his friend Juanita Yubarta, because many times himself, his friends and the people of Taganga, had thrown these wastes to the Sea.

--Relax, said the whale, for that we are here to see how we can prevent this from happening again. For the moment I want you to meet my friend Plankton.

Plankton took shape as a boy dressed in a robe of changing colors that do not stop moving for a moment, filling of flashes similar to the old man’s collar Jaime Costas. Was the glow of life and Marco known he was facing one of the marine treasures.

--I am Plankton of the Sea, one of the triplet sons of the Ocean. I am made of tiny organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye, we have different forms, lack of proper motion and floating in the waters of the Ocean.

--Show him your two faces Marco, proposed Juanita.

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--!With pleasure!, On this side of phytoplankton called me, and I am made of plant cells are not visible to the naked eye. I’m the equivalent of grass land, because my job is to serve food, something I’m the base of the food chain, and take my energy from the sun, as do plants.

Then he turned around and strangely enough, did not back but was himself again, but with a different colored robe.

--On this side I am called zooplankton and animals that no fact can be easily seen. It should be very carefully with me, because if you just Plankton, just Life in the Ocean and possibly the whole Earth.

29

--¿Why? Asked Marco Corales very scared, thinking that what was happening in Taganga Bay, where a shortage of fishing. ¿Do you begin to unravel a dark landscape, where humans had much to do?

--Very simple, Plankton said, changing moving like a spirit of both sides around the child and Juanita Yubarta whale, food chain begins with photosynthesis by microscopic algae, -my vegetable part called phytoplankton-.

--They breed and are the food of zooplankton and other small herbivores. It’s a real Life chain, because the zooplankton in turn multiplies and becomes food for small fish like sardines, which are just as food for larger fish such as salmon and tuna, and the food they other large animals such as sharks, dolphins and whales.

--!And we, the people!, Exclaimed excitedly Marco, as a child he knew that ultimately, when one is fed with a fish, receives sunlight taking small algae that float in the oceans.

--!Sure!, exclaimed Juanita Yubarta, in this chain of Life also involves the taking of Sea man when various beings for food. If this cycle is altered in any stage, the effects for the existence of Life of all inhabitants of the Sea can be disastrous, causing its demise.

30

The Plankton in the waters moved by a agitated current, worried marine and coastal biodiversity was losing his balance, due to threats as terrible as the giant hand that his friends had been stopped, but only for the moment, because How many people was living on the shore of the Sea? ¿3600?.

--¿How many people are 3600 million, Juanita? Marco asked thoughtfully.

--¿Do you remember when your uncles Alcides and Angelica led you to Barranquilla to see a football game of the Colombia selection?! I’ve never seen so many people in one place!

--Well, there were 36,000 spectators, to watch 3,600 million stadiums would have to collect 100,000 of those, full of people... said Juanita Yubarta glancing at his friend the Sea Plankton.

--¿If each one boot your garbage into the sea, imagine the size of the monster Marco chasing me around the planet?, Plankton said grieved.

--!Is in danger this Treasure of the Sea! Marco exclaimed, his face illuminated by the coral necklace.

--So, you begin to discover the meaning of his mission: Marco, you who can speak the language of Human Beings, and you, Juanita, sail the oceans of the world spreading your song for them... Help us to make people aware that if they follow business as usual they, are at riks.

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--I promise that it will, I want to dedicate my life to helping the Ocean, said Marco with determined voice.

His destiny was changed forever and far into the future, whales and Plankton knew they meet again become a man of the Sea, like a true sailor. By the time Marco wanted to knowing things about the Sea and asked Plankton where his other siblings.

--You shall know on time. The Ocean is full of surprises.

--Dams, surprises and large companies, exclaimed Juanita talking to another of his riddles. It was time for them to know the other brothers of Plankton of the Sea.

33

O n this trip Marco began to understand that the Ocean was not only the immense volume of water that was singing with the audible voice of the waves: it was, as he and his friend Juanita Yubarta as a living being, which was shaped and movements.

At school he learned that Colombia has coastal cities like Cartagena, Barranquilla, San Andres, Tumaco and Buenaventura. I knew that on the coast, by wind, waves form and Ocean currents, which were like rivers into the Ocean and traveled together with the Tides and the force of his pounding water, had formed in the patient work of tireless sculptor over millions of years that are the teacher Irene called coastal features.

--!Ie Mrs. Irene! Why tell accidents to the beaches, bays, capes, peninsulas, isthmuses and gulfs?, Marco Corales had asked in class, so named because they missed something as beautiful as sand ribbons and a white crown bordered Bays from Taganga, Gairaca and Neguanje.

--Well Marco, because the Sea, in love with the land, with its waves has cherished for a long, long time and has built it different ways. Sometimes it seems to be the land that came into the Sea and modeled, sometimes it is the Sea coming in, but they have always been together, and do not form a line between the two uniforms but irregular, rough…

MOVEMENTS IN THE OCEAN FULL OF LIFE

34

That class with Mrs. Irene liked Marco, because he was one of those children who had learned to swim rather than walk, and at a very young could handle a canoe and a sailing rig. He was a son of the Sea and the teacher liked to use the beach as a classroom, taking them to look at the Bay, making contact with the sand to show how the waves over time transformed the Earth.

The whole family at Marco Corales linked to the beaches, sand those big lips that surround the earth, kissed by the Ocean water, and where every year the people inside, -which they called “cachacos”- came to rest, play and to take the Sun.

--¿Will you take me to watch the coast from above?, Asked the boy to his friend the Yubarta whale. I wanted to see “truth” he had ever seen a picture in the book of Geography.

--Sure, come on, and from there look after siblings of Plankton. Something tells me that’s they need help.

From above were dunes behind some beaches. The dunes were small hills of sand that fed the sea with their material to the beaches do not disappear. Continued to rise and bays as inputs were more or less deep of the Sea on the coast, like Santa Marta and Cartagena, in the Caribbean Sea and Bahía Solano on the Pacific Ocean.

From the stated Juanita noted that they were making less than the Beagle, like Morrosquillo, where lived Cousin Eduardito, or of Uraba, home of Aunt Angelina. They were great entries in the land of the Sea, larger than the bays and the ends of his mouth next.

35

--¿Why not go down to browse them? Marco asked for.

--Quiet, Life will give you the opportunity to travel; you’ll see in the future ... “said the Humpback whale rider, now is better keeping looking for Necto and Bentos the other triplets of the Sea. We are on the side of Los Cabos.

These were entries of land in the sea where the waves came with great force, and they saw in the Cabo de la Vela at the Guajira, where he also realized that the peninsulas of land masses were connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land called the isthmus.

Down into the water again and noticed something was strange, because the waters of the oceans began to move. Although they had always done, Juanita began to feel that way increased exaggerated movements…

--!Hold on!, Caught yelling at Marco, when the Sea was furious. The sky was covered with large dark clouds and giant in currents and eddies, swellings, tides, waves, and Tsunami.

--!The Ocean is angry, something happen about Life, we are very close! Juanita Yubarta cry anguished. She knew that the Ocean is their home and also home to many animals and plants of different shapes and sizes.

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It is a realm of BIODIVERSITY, which means “variety of living thing”, the old man, Jaime Costas had said. It seemed know everything, and that knowledge came to Marco Corales through the magical coral necklace. The Sea was still raging, as if an angry giant shake it. Marco and Juanita were surrounded by a huge dark shape could be seen talking flashes of light.

--¿Do they come to desecrate my kingdom? ¿What are you doing, Juanita, accompanied by a Human Being? The giant made a fierce face with dentures threatening thousand white sharks.

--Quiet, Necton, this is Marco Corales, chosen to help us. We’re going on a goodwill mission.

Figure huge momentum subsided, the waves subsided and the sky cleared. Millions of marine animals surrounded the two friends. It was another of the triplets: Necton of the Sea. It was easier to see his brother Plankton, as were the fish, turtles, penguins, whales, dolphins, squid and many other inhabitants of the Ocean.

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Marco was astonished when he learn that the old man named Jaime Costas call pelagic organisms, to living animals removed from the coast, in large bodies of water. Juanita Yubarta was part of those giant shape-shifting shoals when exercising their dance of life. The open Ocean was his home, the home where he was born far from the continents, where many other people living at different depths.

The magical coral necklace of the old man Costas, told Marco that those water bodies where living marine organism called pelagic zone, and pelagic who lived in it. To study this area, oceanographers and biologists divided vertically into three parts according to the depth: epipelagic, mesopelagic and bathypelagic.

--The epipelagic zone is between the surface and 200 meters deep, our friends live there Plankton and Nekton of the Sea -said the voice- while Juanita and Marco descended into the depths.

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--Look, this is the second zone, the mesopelagic, ranging from 200 to 1000 meters deep. Those who to live here are very special creatures, like octopus, fish and lantern, fish ax, because as sunlight can only penetrate more or less only to 300 meters deep, most of the Ocean is made up a world of perpetual darkness where animals are specialized to live.

Descended into a world of silence and darkness, broken only by flashes and phosphorescence, suddenly, appearing and disappearing like ghosts.

--We are the chimeras, the tripod fish and angler. We are the people of the third zone, the bathypelagic between 1000 and 4000 meters deep, this is our home and live here as happy as you in Taganga: there is no place more beautiful than that in which one is born, said their new friend with luminous words.

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They returned to the surface to keep talking with Nekton of the Sea. The beings that were knew very well were the subject of current, because they use advantage for travel and foraging. They knew that one of the causes of its formation was the wind which set in motion the water in the upper Ocean, and that other causes were the changes in temperature and salinity of the Sea.

--Marine currents are like rivers, which travel at different speeds, -Necton said with the voice of the dolphins jumping around Marco and Juanita-. You know that are important for navigation, because if the boat goes in the direction of the current travels faster, but if you navigate in the opposite direction slows down, and as for you “time is gold”, because the comes more expensive trip.

Necton explained that when the currents were caused by changes in temperature or salinity of the water, then were immersed in the deep. If the temperature decreased, or increased salinity, water became heavier and sank, but if the temperature increased and decreased salinity became lighter.

--Depending on what happens, by the movement of Earths rotation and the presence of seamounts, the currents are traveling and changing its direction. This planet is alive, and Ocean currents are like blood flowing through your body. In addition you are also made of water, as the Sea, and minerals such as Earth, Necton giant sighed in a voice made for schools to write their words in the water, for Marco Corales to read.

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He said that the currents could be cold or hot water. Necton could be aware of all the Ocean through which communicated with songs of whales and marine animal migrations.

He asked to the child to extend his hand to feel how the currents that were born in the Ecuador as hot and they traveled toward the high latitudes toward the Pole were left cooling because heat in these regions, they returned to their place of origin for deeper ways, came cold, refreshing low-latitude areas or so called Equatorials. As an example he showed a warm current of the Gulf Stream, -which travels through the Caribbean to the North and reaches near Greenland-, and to let him to know that it was a cold draft, the cool waters of the Perú Current or Humboldt, who came from the South Pole to the North and passed near the Ecuador, near the Pacific coast of Colombia.

Nekton said that the currents do not always travel at the same speed, the cold, deep made it very slowly, for a thousand years it took to make one complete revolution, while the warm, ranging from the surface, it took only about ten years to make it´s full travel.

Thank you for your explanations, dear Necton, said Juanita Yubarta, take this warm current to continue seeking help in the Ocean, also known yet we still have your other brother, Benthos. Sank in the midst of a universe filled with marine animals, carried by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

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Marco had never been in a big slide like this, and his feeling was of joy in a delightful vertigo when they came in a huge storm that spun endlessly. They were in a whirlwind and felt that they were like the arms of the currents that were formed when mixed hot and cold water. This where they were now, in the Gulf Stream, was immense, it was 160 kilometers wide and up to five miles deep.

Now they had no time to continue having fun, they had a mission, and took an upwelling or outcrop, occurred when the effect of wind, surface waters were retreating toward the opposite shore. Then the deeper water, -rich food for fish, because there was the dear Plankton of the Sea-, rose to occupy the space left free to other waters. This phenomenon proved to be important for fishing, because many fish reaching these waters to find food. For those sides was waiting, a little frightened, triplet brother: Benthos of the Sea.

The reason for his fear was that they could not move. --Imagine: hanging around still and fishermen using trawls, cast nets, seines, harpoons, and what was worse and sadder: Dynamite! Bang, how scary!

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The sea bottom is stirred in a constant tremor. Juanita Yubarta began singing with her sweet voice like an echo that ran deep green and blue:

--Water is my house, water my planet, water is life, water is love, a love that calms me and soothes my soul.

The song was constantly shaking and Marco Coral saw in the background of the Sea the miracle of the presence of Benthos, the third of the triplets. It was formed by the bodies remained in contact with the bottom. Some were moving like snails, crabs, and lobsters, while others, like oysters, they were static, in Benthos were not all animals, there were also some plants such as algae and sea grasses.

Benthos was only one but two at a time, not as his brother Plankton was different on each side, but was down and up, like one of those figures in the deck that have two heads and one body. The beings that were called were benthic organisms. Those who lived down deep in the funds were very few colors, clear or almost all white, most are accustomed to the dim light of the depths and therefore quite nearsighted and blind, his temperament was rather melancholy and reserved: liked to philosophize. His other half, he looked up and lived in shallow funds was cheerful, witty and singing, needed lots of light, and somewhat balanced by his brash and vivid colors the seriousness of his other half.

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Led by the light of the collar, that illuminating the bathypelagic kingdom, -deep kingdom-the two friends visited the habitants of the Ocean floor. They are illuminated in various ways: some emit flashes at regular intervals to recognize and attract potential mates, others use it as camouflage, or to scare off intruders, they were able to touch to produce a flash of light can temporarily blind or distract the attacker.

These benthic animals belonged essentially to the same groups that were observed in shallow waters: worms, snails, crabs, and shrimp, but adapted to survive in the hard conditions of the deep, which, besides the lack of light, oxygen and food, the weight of water above them were subjected to high pressures. They were true miracles of survival in a world that seemed the weirdest thing, Marco had seen in his life, something unimaginable, but there it was: it was life at the bottom of the Ocean, and as such was respected and prodigious.

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Benthos spoke with a chorus of oysters and clams that open revealing some gems. Explained the reasons for their fear, grateful for the song of Juanita, who had reassured:

--The taken my peace. Even in the darkest depths, I am safe. I asked the moon, but she cannot do anything but go up and down the Tides, as it always did.

--!Tides! Marco said, he knew they were the rise and fall of water, but ¿the moon is the cause? Ask.

--She has to tell you, rebuke him Benthos and that night, called the Moon. The clouds were run as if a curtain opened to a beautiful singer appeared on stage. Her sweet voice that as the poets say seemed made of silver.

--As you have seen so many times, Marquitos, said the Moon affectionately. Tides occur when Ocean surface rises and falls periodically. This is due to crowding in the Sun and I have over the Earth. My purpose is two times larger than the Sun, because even though it is much bigger, much farther from Earth than me.

--When I look into a region of your planet, attract water from the surface of the Ocean in that part, as I pull the stands as if I were a magnet, and when it says there is high tide or high tide. As the Earth and I take turns, when my face look longer this region goes down and the surface effect, then there is Low Tide.

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--That’s true, say Juanita Yubarta, and in the Colombian Pacific, where I live for a while, the Tide is very strong and can raise and lower surfaces up to five meters twice a day. However, in the Caribbean, as in Cartagena and Taganga, the variation is only 30 to 40 centimeters.

--Why such a difference? Asked Marco Corales.

The sweet Moon said that it was because the Pacific was larger than the Caribbean and also because the shape of the bottom edge of the Sea and the coast were different in each case. Bentos said that besides the currents and Tides played a very important food for marine animals, because the waters by mixing the nutrients to be distributed everywhere so that everyone could eat.

--!Sure, yes, the child said, for us too!

He says that and the waves rising, Moon ran hiding behind the curtain of clouds, without further comment or say goodbye, and the timid Benthos, triplet scary, began to tremble: it was time to came the morning when the fishermen. They were very close to the coast and again began the agonizing feeling of approaching danger.

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LIFE ON THE COAST

The triplets of the Sea, Plankton, Nekton and Benthos approached Marco and Juanita in the dim light of dawn.

--!Only you can help. Seen enough; know us and are like our brothers. It’s time to be talking to people, with those living on the coast! They said in chorus. Thither went the whale and the child.

The coastal strip was covered part of the coast and the sea near it, was a marine and terrestrial environments at once. It was a contact area that stretched for miles and often winds pounded roughly. Tides particular way of life that is adapted to wet and dry media.

--We’ll have a lot of work Marco, the coastline is fragile and is often affected by human activities, when not done carefully enough… Juanita said with full awareness, as I knew that 60% of the world population -3600 million people- living on the coast and that this number could double or triple over the holiday period when the “cachacos” from around the world where to find the waves.

Juanita also knew that there are two costs the same, as its shape, curves, slopes and dunes are unique and marine organisms present in them. The profiles of each cost depend on the tides, wind, erosion, currents, temperature, climate and even the kind of rocks on its shores.

For the two friends traveling in search of the Treasury Blue of the Seas, proximity to the beach inhabited by humans represents a hazard. ¿Why people abused with the coasts? That was the question that wanted to elucidate Juanita Yubarta. While sailing to where the men lived with a thoughtful and Marco Corales also silent on his huge dark back, thought about the magic of the waves that now swayed. Rocked by the marine movement, Marco was falling asleep and dreamed of the waves.

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The waves were like a million sleepers little girls, with foam pigtails and smile teeth made of bright white pearl shells. They moved rippling on the surface of the Ocean by the wind.

When the wind was very strong they grow uncontrollably and crashed into the beach doing much damage, but also helped to marine life because when they hit the shore sand and sediment stirred releasing nutrients that feed the Sea creatures. A large wave liked to play with everything, even the people who invented the “Surf” a sport that involves sliding on the waves in a “Tabla”, which is precisely the name of the sport in Spanish.

Waves are so naughty, that for those who play sports on the beach there are a number of signals by flags: red means “forbidden to enter the Sea, is dangerous” yellow “caution” and if it is green “swimming but be alert” because they may have a Hangover, a shallow underwater current, formed when the waves hit the beach, and some of that water backs up in parallel to the shore, with enough force to drag the people.

The restless waves came laughing and asked Marco Corales if he ¿Want to see our mother? And he answered, of course, is a pleasure, then they are held hands with us and took him to the center of the Sea.

It was a tidal wave, like a fat Lady of those that has trouble moving, Madame Tsunami, its name means in Japanese “harbor wave.” Started from the bottom of the Ocean when an earthquake occurred, there was a landslide or an underwater volcano erupted.

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Despite being a so fat Lady, Tsunami moves very fast. It begins when any of these phenomena, and form a wave of one meter in height and about 300 kilometers long, starting a quick trip to almost 1000 kilometers per hour. Upon reaching the coast the speed decreases but its height can sometimes reach up to 40 meters, destroying houses in its path, ports, crops, and everything you find.

When all this mess because the lady Tsunami is called Seaquake. In the Caribbean recently these phenomena occur; however are more common in the Pacific, an example of a very serious was affecting some populations near Tumaco in 1979.

--Those living in coastal cities or on vacation, must be prevented if I visit, said with her voice the fat wave-, so it is good to take this into account:

--If an earthquake occurs in a nearby town or away from the coast where they are, it may be that I wake up, Tsunami, Seaquake. Therefore, they must leave immediately on the coast and follow instructions that give the authorities, and above all, should not remain in low coastal areas.

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--If the sea level decreases or increases in an irregular manner, I can be close with my uncontrollable force.--It may happen that several Tsunami occur in a row, why not trust and wait for instructions from authorities.

--!TO WATCH ME THERE! Cried Mrs. Tsunami Seaquake, making Marco falling out back.

--Eiii! The child cried in panic.

--¿What’s up Marco? Wake up, wake up! Juanita Yubarta said, and in the shape of the coast in sight.

-- I dreamed with Tsunami wave, said Marco.

He felt a pleasant sense of knowing so much about the Ocean. He and Juanita were very close to solving the mystery, for now the seas again to stir as if they were uncomfortable. The whale perceived that in the waters around the world behave as if a person was ill and could not sleep well.

As they approached where people lived, Juanita was a concern that could not hide. She kept in his mind the wisdom of the Earth and love of the Seas, and also know the secrets that the old man Costas had told, and now the magic necklace of coral revealed it to Marco.

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--Every day scientists more knowledge of mankind on Marine Biodiversity, said the collar with its light. Of the 33 major living groups that inhabit the Earth approximately, 32 are in the Seas. In Unknown Ocean floor may be 10 million species that is necessary to discover and study.

Old man Costas voice said the Ocean was a large ecosystem made up of different environments that satisfied both smaller ecosystems, each with special characteristics of light, salinity, temperature, pressure, and of course with their own animals and plants.

Photosynthesis occurred there, which is the miracle by which plants, including blue-green algae could take energy from the Sun and with her split water and carbon dioxide and combine nutrient -rich minerals sodium, potassium, calcium and nitrates- to produce the first links in the chain of life.

--Ocean definitely is life, dear Marco, with 80% of the biological diversity of the land, coral reefs, mangroves, estuaries and sea grass beds, which are the ecosystems that we know now.

--!The Treasury that is the treasure that we want to take! Marco shouted excitedly, with a smile and a heart full of light, to understand that the fate of the Sea would depend on how we treated us as human beings.

The triplets, Plankton, Nekton and Benthos, came out of the water and foam and applauded with its flashes of joy to see that Marco Corales had finally understood. They spoke in unison and their voices again noctilucae images showed what they wanted to communicate to Humans:

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--It is necessary to reduce the loss of habitats –places were living animals and plants-, and reduce threats to the endangered animals such as whales, manatees, seals, dolphins and turtles, among many others.

Juanita Yubarta let out a moan sad, a song of sorrow for all his missing brother, who made his eyes fill with tears of Marco. The chorus went:

--Humans need to know and better studied marine species, their roles and relationships with each other, as taught by the science called Marine Ecology. We must teach people, especially fishermen, large and small, how is the chain of life. When you know it and love it, you know that catching fish should not break too much, but only to be consumed, and understand that not contaminate water, Plankton die because if the first link, other marine animals die.

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--!Must not forget that biodiversity extends around the globe, therefore you have to take care of all ecosystems and their species! Singing the chorus of the triplets of the Sea and surrounding Marco Corales and Juanita Yubarta with embrace Life before dissolving again into the water, like a flash of phosphorescence which beat Life. ¿Do you know the treasures could love? It was time to go see them.

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PARADISE IN THE OCEAN:TREASURES FOUND

Marco, it’s time to find the treasures to make them known!Said Juanita Yubarta approaching the coast, becoming young again in the blue dress with marine animals painted on it.

They were in a magical and bright hour in Taganga, the Sun was dozing at the birds in the foliage of the almond, “trupillos” trees, and giving away his shadow front of the houses of fishermen. A canoe was waiting, and went over the water to find the first treasure: coral reefs.

When healthy, they responded with a smile full of colorful fish, coral reefs were told that they were really a kind of organism made up of millions of skeletons of a tiny animal called a polyp that had tentacles, usually at night and left were grouped in colonies in large numbers.

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--We live in tropical and subtropical waters, shallow and relatively warm, very transparent, with a temperature above 18 degrees Celsius, said in a voice that seemed more like music. We are considered the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, we are in species as different as algae, starfish, eels, sea urchins, sea horses, sharks, lobsters, crabs, sponges and thousands and thousands more.

Marco knew existed more than 2000 species of coral, some other hard and soft, each with its own shape and color, with sizes ranging from small to grow to large bays, which run parallel to the coast forming barriers such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia that extends for 1500 km. In the Caribbean and the Atlantic were found between 70 and 75 species.

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They said to Juanita and Marco that humans should preserve coral reefs because they were an excellent source of food, through to the number of species inhabiting it, and also because some of it´s habitants provided useful substances in medicine and perfumery.

--Tell people that we are barriers prevent erosion by protecting coasts and beaches of the Sea fury, and that should keep us patience as we are a bit slow: some species reach just a few centimeters and even millimeters in a year growth, others to reproduce must have a minimum age of 50 years. But above all, we want you to tell your brothers and sisters, men and women, who must be more careful about these things, which hurt us:

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The erosion of coasts and river basins begins when they cut the trees, as when the rains are causing landslides and all that dirt and mud reaching the reef, killing by suffocation, as they stick to our tissues cannot breathe.

--I have dreaded to dynamite and poisons. You know Marco, that in some parts there are fishermen irresponsible with the explosive break the coral and killing many defenseless animals, others use a poisonous plant called mullein or other cyanide poison that kills our polyps blocking coral growth, and so the fish are left without a safe and pleasant place to live.

--Tell them that we are always accompanied by small plants called algae Juanitas that serve as food, but when the water temperature increases, for example, when thrown into the Ocean industries engine hot water, the algae die and the coral is also impaired, dies or grows very little.

--! Ugh the garbage into the Sea, Marco! corals are very delicate organisms cannot live in dirty water because the decomposition of waste produces substances that can kill us. In addition, when the place where we live loses its quality, other resistant organisms such as sponges or algae large, they can compete with the coral as it grows more slowly, is moved in a short time.

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--Oil spills at Sea can be fatal for us because they prevent the algae receive the light they need for photosynthesis, as well as oil can stick to our suffocating tissues, as we tell you that happens with soil and mud from the erosion and storm of the boats.

--!Oh, sorry we complain so much, dear friend, but sometimes even the joy of the holiday hurts us! When a man visits coral reef areas and pass on their boats at high speed, the engine aft too agitated water, ground up and damaging the coral. There are many who also stepped on or tear it, breaking it to make ornaments and jewels, without thinking that is making us great harm, because corals grow very slowly and cannot recover easily from these “wounds” that cause us.

--!The ornaments! Exclaimed Marco Corales taking the collar of the old man Costas -I do not want to hurt you, coral reef, you back this gem-. By putting the gift in the water broke in the middle of flashing, and polyps were restored to Life. They returned to the reef in the surf, leaving a luminous trail of words:

--Thanks Marco to return home, we have fulfilled our mission, and you can go to find the second treasure, mangrove forests!.

While Marco and Juanita were in the canoe going to a forest that was visible in the distance on the coast, the boy thought about how we look like humans and coral reefs, live in large groups, as we in the cities, we hurt with the garbage, dirty water, and explosions ... Music made with the voice of the wind among the leaves and the singing of the waves between the roots were happy in that grove of trees called mangroves.

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--!Peladito Aha, look at us! They said with cheerful accents of those living on the edge of the Sea. The mangroves are tropical coastal plants that can grow in salt water, soft-bottom mud with little oxygen.

Marco was happy among them, because they had the kindness of his uncles and the people of Taganga: never lacked the smile. They were of different kinds: the red mangrove growing in the Sea and said it seemed “a sunny cachaco”, the white and black mangrove that could grow around salt water lagoons or on the ground, and said they did not care saladin eat, they had a good heart.

To feed, mangroves absorbed the water through their roots, which were large branches which trap large amounts of organic matter that decompose and it´s own water falling leaves, were food for the many animals that lived in his roots. The mangrove like a permanent holiday, down into the water where he fishes, snails, crabs, oysters, shrimp, turtles, and insects, and up among the foliage, where they ceased their clamor pelicans, herons, ducks and gulls, as well as foxes, monkeys and deer.

--Let me tell, Compae Marcos, because we love Life we are like family, mangrove forests, as your friends corals, also prevent coastal erosion and beach caused by the strong currents and hurricanes . Our roots filter the Sea water to help keep it clean and quality, as you must know that we are the nursery of the Sea.

--¿Do you care for children?, asked Marco Corales.

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--¿Why Not? We get the pelaítos of the habitants of the Sea. I’ll give an example: Look, Compae, the adult shrimp lays its eggs in the Ocean off the coast, and there are born small larvae that feed on phytoplankton, one side your friend ¿Do you remember?. Then drag the larv to the coast where the mangrove forest.

--Here are a welcome glad, because we are a natural incubator, where it is growing larvae find lots of food, and can hide and protect the roots that form a forest on stilts. Here the juvenile shrimp grown longer receives his diploma degree, feels love and begins its journey toward deeper water aided by tides and currents. It’s going to find a partner to start the cycle again did their parents.

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--The same thing happens to other species of fish, shellfish and many, I tell you that the old man Jaimito Costas once went here and said !Hombe Oh! Nearly 40% of the fish in the world spent a part of his Life in the mangroves ¿Do you still?.

--It is important to tell people that mangrove forests are threatened by some things that we are serious, such as excessive felling trees for wood and make charcoal and firewood, or cut our roots to loosen oysters and clams.

--Something that is terrible for us is to raze the whole forest for docks, roads, hotels, swimming pools or rearing of shrimp or rice planting or throwing we pollute the sewage, waste from industries or when there are spills of fuels such as gasoline or oil.

--See Marco: do not say not to draw anything we ask is to be treated with love and thus not lack food for people. As Jaimito Costas said: Hombe Oh!, We managed sustainably! And with that you can go to visit the third treasure: Estuaries.

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Estuaries talked like the people inside, they are water ecosystems semi-enclosed and shallow, characterized by the exchange of salt and fresh water as a river flows into them and is at once communicated freely with the Ocean, which also influence the tides.

--Look Chinaman, we also produce a lot Life estuaries because the river carries from Earth amounts of nutrients, that when they reach the Sea is necessary, wing, accurate, with an accuracy that you cannot imagine, with the eggs and larvae of different animals that come brought by little tides. With such a rich meal mussels get cute, looks a divine cheek, crabs with tongs wing, “chusquísimas”, especially migratory fish fry which need calm water and low salinity.

Estuaries talked nonstop, and of course Marco asked to tell people that they loved to see, and that they never were food. Very nice said and told that he could go see the fourth treasure: sea grass.

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Sea grasses were beautiful, like a dream come true, slow dance with blue-green aquatic plants similar to pasture land. Gardens of tropical waters were shallow, with high brightness and where there were little waves, with pastures of green algae, red and brown top 50 centimeters high, fixed with its roots in the sand, swaying as if dozing.

Marco and Juanita also there were a whole community of animals in the early stages of life, because they served sea grass cot, food and shelter. It was a ballet of turtles, sponges, shrimps, worms, fish, snails, starfish and a beautiful singing diva, fat depth: Sea Cow or Manatee.

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--In addition to our importance as a generator of Life, we avoid the sea grass coastal erosion by water movements of the Ocean. So you must beware.

Marco and Juanita heard a distant rumble that seemed to call them. It was the deep voice of the Ocean; the same that Serankúa heard from the heights of the Sierra Nevada. Sea headed inside where there was a huge column of water moving with a noise storm.

--What did Father Ocean say?.

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BENEFITS OF THE OCEAN

T he Ocean was like a huge and powerful King, who was curled up, looking terrible. As Juanita and Marco sailed to the large mass, they could see on top of that wall of water roaring sea gods were the peoples of the world had revered throughout the centuries.

--Marco, Humans have forgotten me!, roared the Ocean, it is necessary to return to love, but can only do so if they know me as you have done on this trip. Listen, they still need to know more. I, the Ocean regulates climate, then I save more than half the heat that comes from the Sun and distributed throughout the Earth with my currents. Without me, she would be very hot in the day and too cold at night, making life impossible. I am also fundamental in the water cycle or hydrologic cycle, and thanks to give my moisture evaporation into the atmosphere to form clouds and rain comes, so necessary for life to all beings. My algae produce more than half the oxygen you breathe and animals, and also absorb large amount of smoke released factories and cars.

--You, as a child you are fishing, Marco, you know what food to mankind, giving an average annual 90 million tons of fish for more than 3000 million people, half of the world’s population. On the other hand, fishing is a profession that employs 200 million persons. You learned on this trip than men, with their science and technology obtained from the Ocean Biodiversity medicines, fertilizers, food, chemical products for industry, cosmetics and perfumes, and yet we throw garbage.

--I am the ideal medium for 80% of global transport of goods, food and all kinds of products, traveling on ships of different types and sizes. Since ancient times, major retailers, such as the Phoenicians carried their products by the Ocean.

--Also a mine liquid in my water as many minerals are dissolved and my background is salt deposits, oil and natural gas in some parts of the Pacific are polymetallic nodules, which are spheres containing various metals such as Iron, Cobalt, Manganese, Copper, Cadmium, Nickel and Zinc.

Using technology Humans could get the Ocean electrical energy needed to light the houses and move the industry, taking advantage of the waves, tides and currents, as is being done in some countries.

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--I gave mankind a wonderful space for the nice beaches of rest activities, recreation, and sport. You’ve seen them on vacation in the Sea swimming, playing volleyball, fishing, or sailing in small boats.

-- !The Treasury, that is the treasure that we are about to lose! Exclaimed Marco.

--Yes, said Juanita Yubarta, our Wonderful Ocean is permanently subjected to great danger by the lack of consciousness of man, which has been used as a dump, believing that being so huge; you can receive all the waste without anything happen.

--I am hurt by this mistake, said the Ocean, and if the man does not change his behavior will cause the demise of Life on Earth, and with it humanity.

--!Look where it comes from pollution! Said Juanita Yubarta whale, showing how the huge monster that grew and had once frightened. Grew each time the sewage from most of the cities came, without any treatment, directly into rivers and drains, and through them to the Ocean. This endangered the Life of marine organisms and the people who consumed because transmitted diseases like hepatitis, cholera and allergies.

The garbage and waste such as plastics, paper, bottles and cans, went to the bottom of the Ocean, extending ominous ramifications of the monster, causing damage to the corals and the death of the turtles, which they mistook plastic bags with jellyfish they fed and perished when eaten for intestinal obstruction or choking.

He showed how industries throwing waste materials, chemicals and engine warm waters, rivers and through them to the Sea, which ended up hurting the animals and plants of the Ocean. He too came insecticides used on farms, with the rain dripped into streams and followed the path of the river, with its cargo of death to reach the Marine animals and plants.

The contamination was a dangerous beast of a thousand faces, and Juanita Yubarta knew the Life danger, running when accidents had large ships carrying oil and chemicals. Vast tracts of coastline and beaches are harmed by being covered by these substances. Animals and plants perished from suffocation, as to be covered in oil they could not eat and breathe. Moreover, these spills damaging the landscape and alter human activities such as fishing and recreation.

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No damage ceased to the Sea, Juanita was in their migrations many ships, that without knowing were the terrible pollution disciples, they sailed with sewage dumped fuel tanks, bathrooms and garbage waste from their kitchens, including plastics, which caused serious damage to the Ocean and the creatures that inhabited it. The chimneys of the factories without proper filters, throwing debris into the atmosphere of chemicals of various kinds, rising like a beast air then fell to the Ocean in the wind.

Even the mine waste such as mercury, which is a very poisonous heavy metal used for the treatment of gold, came to the Ocean, entered the food chain and affect living things, from the tiny phytoplankton to us, the giant whales, to sardines, tuna and sharks.

It also included human beings, as occurred in Minamata Bay in Japan, where an entire fishing village was badly paralyzed by eating fish contaminated with this metal.

--!That’s not all, Marco! Said in chorus the gods of Ocean, pollution in addition there are other human activities that threaten me, look at them.

The magic of the Gods was witnessed Marco terrible things, such as overfishing: Each year the fishermen threw 27 million tons of fish, which was not used to be very small, or because people were not accustomed to consuming. But the terrible thing was that they were not allowed to grow or become food for other residents of the Sea.

Swordfish saw him that they were running because they fished many young females that had not been reproduced. They need to have at least 5 years, being large and weigh a lot to rise a new generation.

Neptune, God of the Sea, pointed with his golden trident of 15 banks, large parts of the Ocean where fish were from the beginning of the world, and Marco Corales found that 11 of these sites were almost ruined, destroyed and very few animals, surrounded by the ghosts of the damage that night filled with sadness and hope for Sea fishermen of Taganga.

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A sweet voice, down the waves, and when Marco and Juanita looked over there, they saw a beautiful woman, daughter of the Seas and born of a giant clam. It was Venus, the Goddess of Love:

--Something very bad happens when humans take somewhere in the Ocean of beings who are not there. The beautiful Venus spoke of the introduction of exotic species.

It was a threat to marine and coastal biodiversity, to the transfer of water they brought animals, or their larvae and eggs, to new places, endangering native species that could be swallowed up by the newcomers. Usually occurred when the tankers that would collect oil or other fuels, put water in their tanks for stability during the trip. Upon arrival at the port unloaded the water thousands of miles from where they had gathered.

So in some of the world Seas new species changed the original ecosystems. That’s how the American comb jelly, a sort of brought the United States invaded the Azov Sea and Black Sea, eliminating the local anchovy and causing severe economic and social problems.

A Maori God carved on a large block of wood, he said with disgust:

--!What has caused terrible damage in the coastal zone!.

Marco knew that lived there more than half the world population, and that the waste drained Mar 12 of the 20 largest cities in the world, from Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan, to New York and Los Angeles in the U.S., to Shanghai in China, Bombay in India and Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires in South America.

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!The man has no care required! Shouted Maori spirit angry. Lift industries; build homes, hotels, roads and ports and agricultural practices. He does not care but its profit, not protecting the marine environment from pollution, mangroves just replacing them with farms raising

shellfish, coastal lagoons and marshes filled, unique species extinguished, destroys the coral reef to make channels for their ships

and boats.

The air is also sickened by the greenhouse effect! A God Wayuu spoke, who habited at the

Guajira peninsula.

He said that the production of gases, like carbon dioxide or CO2, emitted by coal fired factories and exhaust from cars, and its accumulation in the upper layers of the atmosphere, increasing the temperature of the Earth to act as a roof that does not let out the heat radiating from the planet.

--If global temperatures rise, the Sea level will rise significantly causing flooding in coastal areas, destroying and taking islands of my beloved Guajira. The warming of Sea, also end up with coral and fish.

--All the damage we have mentioned, said Ocean, occur because people do not know our importance or know of resources that store, or ignore what they are fragile and subject to changes caused by human actions. What I ask is that you, who speak their language,

teach them to love.

--Yes, said Marco Corales with determination, I will devote my life to the Ocean, I will be Sub official

de la Armada Nacional de Colombia and teach people to know and protect the Ocean.

A resounding roar like giant wave crashing on a beach of golden sand, formed by the praise of the joy of the Gods of the Ocean, signed the promise of the child.

When silence were again in the Sea, heard the commitment.

Y COMMITMENT WITH THE CEAN

Before the god of the Ocean, the triplets Plankton, Nekton and Benthos of the Sea, and having to witness my friend Juanita Yubarta and_______________________________________________________, reader of this book, I declare that:

The Ocean and the beings that inhabit it are essential to Life on Earth, because each plays a critical role, regardless of their appearance, color, shape or size.

The Ocean is the main regulator of the climate on Earth, is a source of food and other resources but its capacity is not eternal.

The Ocean brings jobs, leisure, recreation, and is the largest and most economical means of transportation.

The Ocean coastal area has the highest biological productivity of the land, enough to feed us all, managing it sustainably.

It is necessary to study and understand the marine environment, its flora and fauna, to cherish, protect and conserve it.

Marco Co®ales

Y COMMITMENT WITH THE CEAN

Therefore I will:

Seek to permanently maintain the health of the Ocean and Coastal Areas, which means abundance of plants and animals, so that together with the judicious use of other resources, future generations can continue to enjoy its benefits.

Develop awareness of the importance of the Ocean so that together, citizens and government do all sorts of activities to keep it as a source of life and humanity’s common heritage.

--Be a strong advocate for my entire life, the Ocean, its coastal areas and other treasures I found in my journey. I will not have to mistreat or abuse them, however, help to study, preserve and keep them clean to that they always remain of Life.

Signad

Juanita Yubarta Marco Corales

Reader

76

With the arrival of the first stars were gods returning to their home seas, with a smile on your face and a glimmer of hope in the heart. If the brand promise was that of all children in the world would be saved, Life could continue there would be peace between man and the Ocean. It would be promising for the future.

It’s time to go home, he said in his soft singing Juanita Yubarta, and slid gracefully illuminated by a wave shining noctilucae million at the beginning of the night, as if the water repeat the stars of heaven.

Marco was happy, his heart so full of everything he had seen and experienced, could not stand the urge to come and tell everyone. You have to have patience, said the whale, reading her thoughts, the important thing is do not forget your promise, and you forget your friends in the Ocean.

--¿I will see you again Juanita? Marco asked, a little worried because she lived in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

--Sure, we’ll see in a place called the future, but in the meantime rest, I’m taking you home.

Lying on the enormous whale, Marco Corales put his head on his folded arms and lulled by the rocking stopped the trip. Accompanied by the song of Juanita, he fell asleep.

END