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Oceans in crisis
Ocean life comes in an incredible array of shapes and sizes - from microscopic plankton to the largest of the great whales.
Yet many species have been, or are being, driven towards extinction through devastating human impacts.
The Defending our Oceans voyage will expose these threats, confront the villains and promote solutions such as a global network of ocean parks called marine reserves.
The key threats facing our oceans include:
Giant ships, using state-of-the-art equipment, can pinpoint schools of fish quickly and accurately. These industrial fishing fleets have exceeded the ocean's ecological limits. As larger fish are wiped out, the next smaller fish species are targeted and so on. (Canadian Fisheries expert Dr Daniel Pauly warns that if this continues our children will be eating jellyfish.)
Simply put, more and more people are competing for less and less fish and worsening the existing oceans crisis. More
Modern fishing practices are incredibly wasteful. Every year, fishing nets kill up to 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises globally. Entanglement is the greatest threat to the survival of many species. Moreover, some fishing practices destroy habitat as well as inhabitants. Bottom trawling, for example, destroys entire ancient deep-sea coral forests and other delicate ecosystems. In some areas it is the equivalent of ploughing a field several times a year. More
As traditional fishing grounds in the north have collapsed, fishing capacity has increasingly turned to Africa and the Pacific. Pirates that ignore regulations and effectively steal fish are denying some of the poorest regions of the world much needed food security and income, and those fleets fishing legally are only giving a small percentage of the profit to African or Pacific States. More
Aquaculture (fish and shellfish farming) is often put forward as the future of the seafood industry. But the shrimp aquaculture industry is perhaps the most destructive, unsustainable and unjust fisheries industry in the world. Mangrove clearances, fishery destruction, murder and community land clearances have all been widely reported.
The salmon farming industry also proves farming is no solution - it takes approximately 4kgs of wild caught fish to produce 1kg of farmed salmon. More
Global warming
The ocean and its inhabitants will be irreversibly affected by the impacts of global warming and climate change. Scientists say that global warming, by increasing sea water temperatures, will raise sea levels and change ocean currents. The effects are already beginning to be felt. Whole species of marine animals and fish are at risk due to the temperature rise - they simply cannot survive in the changed conditions. For example, increased water temperatures are thought to be responsible for large areas of corals turning white and dying (bleaching). More
Another significant impact of human activity on the marine environment is pollution. The most visible and familiar is oil pollution caused by tanker accidents. Yet despite the scale and visibility of such impacts, the total quantities of pollutants entering the sea from oil spills are dwarfed by those of pollutants introduced from other sources. These include domestic sewage, industrial discharges, urban and industrial run-off, accidents, spillage, explosions, sea dumping operations, mining, agricultural nutrients and pesticides, waste heat sources, and radioactive discharges. More
Fundamental changes need to be made in the way our oceans are managed. This means that we must act to make sure that human activities are sustainable, in other words that they meet human needs of current and future generations without causing harm to the environment. Accordingly, governments must set aside 40 percent of our oceans as marine reserves. Marine reserves can be defined as areas of the ocean in which the exploitation of all living resources is prevented, together with the exploitation of non-living resources such as sand and gravel and other minerals.
Yet many species have been, or are being, driven towards extinction through devastating human impacts.
The Defending our Oceans voyage will expose these threats, confront the villains and promote solutions such as a global network of ocean parks called marine reserves.
The key threats facing our oceans include:
Industrial fishing
Giant ships, using state-of-the-art equipment, can pinpoint schools of fish quickly and accurately. These industrial fishing fleets have exceeded the ocean's ecological limits. As larger fish are wiped out, the next smaller fish species are targeted and so on. (Canadian Fisheries expert Dr Daniel Pauly warns that if this continues our children will be eating jellyfish.)
Simply put, more and more people are competing for less and less fish and worsening the existing oceans crisis. More
Bycatch
Modern fishing practices are incredibly wasteful. Every year, fishing nets kill up to 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises globally. Entanglement is the greatest threat to the survival of many species. Moreover, some fishing practices destroy habitat as well as inhabitants. Bottom trawling, for example, destroys entire ancient deep-sea coral forests and other delicate ecosystems. In some areas it is the equivalent of ploughing a field several times a year. More
Unfair fisheries
As traditional fishing grounds in the north have collapsed, fishing capacity has increasingly turned to Africa and the Pacific. Pirates that ignore regulations and effectively steal fish are denying some of the poorest regions of the world much needed food security and income, and those fleets fishing legally are only giving a small percentage of the profit to African or Pacific States. More
Fish farming
Aquaculture (fish and shellfish farming) is often put forward as the future of the seafood industry. But the shrimp aquaculture industry is perhaps the most destructive, unsustainable and unjust fisheries industry in the world. Mangrove clearances, fishery destruction, murder and community land clearances have all been widely reported.
The salmon farming industry also proves farming is no solution - it takes approximately 4kgs of wild caught fish to produce 1kg of farmed salmon. More
Global warming
The ocean and its inhabitants will be irreversibly affected by the impacts of global warming and climate change. Scientists say that global warming, by increasing sea water temperatures, will raise sea levels and change ocean currents. The effects are already beginning to be felt. Whole species of marine animals and fish are at risk due to the temperature rise - they simply cannot survive in the changed conditions. For example, increased water temperatures are thought to be responsible for large areas of corals turning white and dying (bleaching). More
Pollution
Another significant impact of human activity on the marine environment is pollution. The most visible and familiar is oil pollution caused by tanker accidents. Yet despite the scale and visibility of such impacts, the total quantities of pollutants entering the sea from oil spills are dwarfed by those of pollutants introduced from other sources. These include domestic sewage, industrial discharges, urban and industrial run-off, accidents, spillage, explosions, sea dumping operations, mining, agricultural nutrients and pesticides, waste heat sources, and radioactive discharges. More
Defending our oceans
Fundamental changes need to be made in the way our oceans are managed. This means that we must act to make sure that human activities are sustainable, in other words that they meet human needs of current and future generations without causing harm to the environment. Accordingly, governments must set aside 40 percent of our oceans as marine reserves. Marine reserves can be defined as areas of the ocean in which the exploitation of all living resources is prevented, together with the exploitation of non-living resources such as sand and gravel and other minerals.