And closer inspection of this figure paints an even more challenging picture-only 2.5% of the ocean is highly or fully protected by MPAs-the level protection required to achieve meaningful biological benefits. Today, just 8% of the ocean is managed to some degree within marine protected areas (MPAs). Scientists, coastal communities and over 100 national governments now support the goal to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030-the target humanity must hit to secure the long-term health of the planet. This sets a global stage for governments and ocean leaders to advance a science-based blueprint for replenishing our planet. This week delegates from around the world will gather in Lisbon for the United Nation’s Ocean Conference. Hope and the opportunity to reverse this steep trajectory of decline still exists-but not for long. All the while, momentum is growing to expand new frontiers for commercial exploitation of sea life, oil, gas, and pristine deep ocean systems for rare art minerals. Today, commercially exploited fish populations have declined to a fraction of their former numbers, marine waters are warming and becoming more acidic due to greenhouse gas emissions, and plastic is ubiquitous, found at the oceans deepest point and in the stomachs of albatross, whales, and people. However, the ocean, covering more than 70% of Earth, is paying a steep price for acting as the shock absorber for human excess. And we share a profound respect and understanding of the extent to which life everywhere depends on the ocean-and how little time is left before we lose Earth’s greatest gift.Ī healthy ocean provides innumerable and irreplaceable direct benefits to people and economies by regulating climate and weather, absorbing carbon, buffering coastal communities, and supporting livelihoods, and it also provides intangible serenity through spiritual, cultural, and emotional connections. We know that the greatest abundance and diversity of life is in the sea. We know the currents, churning tides, and the crushing darkness of the deep ocean. Our personal and deep connections to the ocean come from decades of experiences on and under marine waters around the globe. At that moment Earth’s beauty-and vulnerability-were achingly apparent. As the Apollo 8 astronauts became the first humans to move into the vacuum of space, they looked back onto Earth, so lush and green in their mind’s eye, and understood-we live on a blue planet.
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