Top Priorities
We all depend on the ocean for survival, and despite it represents 70% of the Earth’s surface, less than 5% of it has been explored and less than 2% has been protected. Thus, it is our responsibility to care for it. Human activities severely impact the marine environment: overfishing, noise, shipping transit, pollution, waste disposal, oil and gas extraction, mining, oil spills, single-use plastics, ghost nets, abandoned fishing gear, floating debris… the list is extensive!
Plastics and floating debris
Plastic is one of the worst ocean pollutants nowadays. Besides huge amounts of it being spilt every year into the seas and rivers, it constitutes a danger for marine fauna, from the large whales to the tiny plankton. It takes a long time to degrade and it breaks in micro-particles that are then ingested by the smallest organisms, entering the food chain up to us.
Ghost nets and fishing debris
Abandoned and lost fishing gear pose a considerable risk for marine fauna. Some of this fishing gear gets lost during storms at sea, other drops from the vessels when they are not well secured, others are broken pieces of a whole. Every year, several dolphins, whales, sea turtles, sharks and seabirds die entangled in floating abandoned nets.
Megafauna
Marine megafauna is considered to be good ocean health indicators. Due to their size and their long life span, they are suitable for long term studies, and their position, usually on the top levels of the food chain, allows them to reflect what happens with other species they interact with. By studying them, useful inferences might be made about the state of health of oceans and coasts from which human communities depend, and make the right management decisions.
Climate
The Ocean is our primary climate regulator. By absorbing the heat from the atmosphere, it cools down the air. It also absorbs CO2, which is used to produce oxygen and clean the air. However, we are polluting so much that the Ocean is absorbing too much heat and can’t cool down the air fast enough. This provokes dominant winds to slow, which also slows down the ocean currents, interfering with nutrients, temperature and oxygen exchange within the ocean layers.
Pollution
Pollution of the oceans has been a significant challenge. We keep throwing all kind of waste into the sea, thinking it will disappear. Actually, we are only creating an additional problem, which is growing every day with catastrophic consequences, not only for marine life but also for ourselves. All those pollutants are being integrated into the food chain… and into all of us.