Overfishing and pollution have pushed life in the high seas to the brink of collapse, according to a new report from the Global Ocean Commission.
“The oceans are a failed state,” David Miliband, co-chair of the commission, told Reuters. The commission has implored governments to set a five-year deadline to deal with threats to the health of the high seas, which are marine waters outside national coastal zones; these seas cover almost half the globe.
Fishermen catch around ten million tons of fish from the high seas every year, with a value of $16 billion dollars. It’s a vast ocean of resources only recently made accessible by advances in fishing technology. The report warns that a combination of technology and big fuel subsidies have enabled industrial fishing fleets to heavily exploit 87% of the fish species there. Eighteen countries hand out billions of dollars in subsidies; the United States bestows fleets with $137 million for a catch worth $368 million.
Pollution, largely from plastics, also endangers ocean health. The abundance of plastics in the marine environment has risen tenfold every decade in some locations, and poses a hazard to sea life when they eat it or get entangled in it. Habitat destruction, climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss also pose a danger to ocean ecosystems.
Read more . . .
The Latest on: Ocean health
via Google News
The Latest on: Ocean health
- Ocean City's Weekly COVID Cases Up 11 Percent: See Town Updateson January 16, 2021 at 6:30 pm
The coronavirus continues to take a grim toll on Ocean City and Cape May County, according to updated state data. See local updates below.
- Ocean County's Weekly COVID Cases Up 10 Percent: See Town Updateson January 16, 2021 at 6:09 pm
The coronavirus continues to take a grim toll on Ocean County, according to updated state data. See how your town is doing below ...
- Southern Regional to Become Ocean County's Second Public Covid-19 Vaccine Siteon January 14, 2021 at 11:46 am
The Ocean County Board of Commissioners announced Wednesday evening they will add a second site to expand its COVID-19 vaccination program.
- Ocean County to open second COVID-19 vaccination siteon January 14, 2021 at 10:19 am
Ocean County Commissioner Gerry P. Little said the new location at Southern Regional High School in Stafford would open Tuesday evening.
- Taking the lab into the ocean: A fleet of robots tracks and monitors microbial communitieson January 13, 2021 at 5:25 pm
Researchers enabled a trio of self-driving robots to locate, follow, and sample a layer of oceanic microbes as they drifted in an open-ocean eddy north of the Hawaiian islands.
- Robot fleet tracks, analyzes microbial community in the open oceanon January 13, 2021 at 3:16 pm
In a first-of-its-kind proof-of-concept study, scientists have used an autonomous fleet of robots to track and analyze a community of microbes in the open ocean.
- Ocean Springs Health and Rehab partners with CVS to vaccinate residents and staffon January 13, 2021 at 2:46 pm
Vaccines continue to come available for those who meet the age requirement, health care, and long term care facilities. Today CVS went to the Ocean Springs Health and Rehab Center to vaccinate staff ...
- LETTER – Ocean health should outweigh corporate profitson January 13, 2021 at 9:26 am
The big advertising dollars flow as the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BFSA), a lobbying group, and their large corporate boosters, including Norway’s MOWI and Minnesota-based Cargill, lament the ...
- From Norway to Canada, the Arctic Ocean is being polluted by tiny plastic fibers from our clotheson January 12, 2021 at 6:01 pm
Tiny microfiber strands, washed into the ocean from laundering our clothes or from industrial wastewater, are polluting one of the most remote regions on Earth.
- Vaccination signups back on Ocean County Health Department's website following system shutdownon January 12, 2021 at 5:54 am
Registration signups for COVID-19 vaccinations are back on the Ocean County Health Department's website today, after improvements to the system shut down registration for a couple of days.
via Bing News
