The second trumpet harms the commerce on which human society and political institutions must depend for survival – Revelation 8:8-9. The sounding of the Second Trumpet causes upheaval in the sea, disrupting a third of all seaborne trade. In the Book of Revelation , the “sea” is vital to the commerce upon which end-time Babylon and the Empire depend for power, and it is the place from which the Beast ascends. This explains why, at the end of the Book, no “ sea ” is found in New Jerusalem. In the symbolic world, the Sea is linked directly to the Dragon and the Beast.