The world’s oceans are vital for life on Earth. Drifting phytoplankton provide almost half the oxygen released into the atmosphere. Marine and coastal ecosystems provide food and protect communities from storms.
Nearly 30 per cent of the world’s population lives in coastal areas. However, rapidly changing climate and massive biodiversity losses represent an unprecedented threat to these ecosystems and to life on Earth as we know it. Research shows that coastal regions bear the brunt of climate change and extractive impacts.
Industrial fishing can extract in a day what a small boat might take in a year. Since 1950, carbon dioxide emissions from global marine fisheries have quadrupled. Bottom trawling — where a ship tows a large net along the seafloor — adds further damage by disturbing carbon-rich seafloor sediments.
