Flora and fauna
Many tropical shores of the Indian Ocean are mangroves, where special communities of plants and animals have developed, adapted to regular flooding and drainage. Among the plants in this ecosystem*, the most notable are the mangrove trees, and among the animals, the various crabs and fish, the silt jumper that inhabits almost all the mangroves of the Indian Ocean. The shallow waters of tropical waters of the entire ocean have attracted the attention of reef-forming corals and the fish and invertebrates that inhabit them. In the shallower, temperate zones, red and brown algae abound in abundance, with most of them laminaria, fucuses, and giant macro cystic fish. Phytoplankton is represented by pyridines in the tropics and diatoms in temperate latitudes, as well as blue-green algae, sometimes forming seasonal clusters.
Among the animals inhabiting the Indian Ocean, the largest number of copepod crustaceans is found here, with more than 100 species. Surprisingly, if we consider all copepods of the Indian Ocean, their weight will exceed the weight of all other inhabitants of this ocean. Among the invertebrates are numerous winged mollusks, as well as jellyfish and squids. Fish in the open ocean are the most volatile fish, tuna, coryphene, sailboats, and luminous anchovies. The Indian Ocean is home to many dangerous animals - there are plenty of sharks and poisonous sea snakes, even crested crocodiles prone to cannibalism. Mammals in the Indian Ocean include many whales, dolphins, and seals, as well as dugongs. Among the birds, frigates and albatrosses are the masters of the Indian Ocean and penguins in cold and temperate waters.
History of research
The history of Indian Ocean exploration can be divided into 3 periods: from ancient voyages to 1772; from 1772 to 1873 and from 1873 to the present. The first period is characterized by a study of the distribution of ocean and land waters in this part of the globe. It began with the first voyages of Indian, Egyptian and Phoenician navigators, who traveled 3000-1000 years BC in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, and ended with the voyage of J. Cook, who in 1772-75 entered the South to 71° S. The second period was marked by the beginning of deep-sea research, first conducted by Cook in 1772 and continued by Russian and foreign expeditions. The main Russian expeditions were - Kotsebu on "Rurik" (1818) and Pallen on "Cyclone" (1858-59). The third period is characterized by complex oceanographic research. Until 1960 they were carried out on separate ships. The largest works were carried out by expeditions on the ships "Challenger" (English) in 1873-74, "Vityaz" (Russian) in 1886, "Valdivia" (German) in 1898-99 and "Gauss" (German) in 1901-1903, "Discovery II" (English) in 1930-51, the Soviet expedition to the "Ob" in 1956-58, etc. In 1960-65, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Expedition to UNESCO carried out an international Indian Ocean expedition that collected valuable new data on hydrology, hydrochemistry, meteorology, geology, geophysics, and biology. Soviet and foreign scientists took an active part in this expedition on the research vessels "Vityaz", "A. I. Voyeikov", "Y. M. Shokalsky", non-magnetic schooner "Zarya" (USSR), "Natal" (South Africa), "Diamantine" (Australia), "Kistna" and "Varuna" (India), "Zulfikvar" (Pakistan).
Problems
The major environmental problems of the Indian Ocean, like those of other parts of the world's oceans, are primarily related to anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems and severe damage to the resilience of these natural systems. Among the various types of pollution of the Indian Ocean waters, oil pollution occupies a special place. The Near and Middle East region plays the role of the main "oil crane" in the foreign world economy. It accounts for more than 2/3 of all reserves and 1/3 of oil production in the foreign world. The Persian Gulf basin is particularly notable. Oil exports from the countries of this basin amount to more than 500 million tons annually. The main marine oil cargo flows start from the largest ports of the Persian Gulf and go to Western Europe, North America, and Japan. The largest tankers go through the western part of the Indian Ocean along the coasts of Africa and its northern part near the coasts of South and South-East Asia, smaller oil tankers are sent through the Suez Canal. Therefore, it is the northern, northeastern and western areas of the ocean that are the most covered with an oil film.
The serious danger of pollution of the Indian Ocean comes from militarization, preparation of wars and military actions themselves. Warships, as a rule, avoid environmental control and cause significant damage to ocean waters. To this day, there are still many ships on the bottom of the sea, which were sunk during various wars, in particular, during the Iran-Iraq war. The recent military conflict in the Persian Gulf region (Iraqi-Kuwaiti) resulted in damage to many large-tonnage tankers and drilling platforms and, as a result, huge oil pollution in the Gulf.