This includes our obvious basic needs such as the provision of drinking water and sources of food; however the health of our seas is also connected to unexpected factors such as the weather, earth’s climate and even the oxygen we breathe.
Protecting our oceans is therefore imperative to the maintenance of our planet, our resources, our ecosystems and to human life. Oceans provide a habitat for thousands if not millions of animal and plant species, as well as supporting the livelihoods of over 3 billion people across the globe.
However, unregulated fishing threatens food supplies and jobs, illegal hunting endangers marine life due to black market trade and entanglement in abandoned nets (ghost nets), changes to the climate are affecting biodiversity and plastic pollution is rife— together causing irreparable destruction.