Pollution, litter and over-fishing is pushing the once pristine habitats deep down the oceans to a point of no return damage, the United Nations warned. humankind’s The exploitation of the deep seas and oceans by humans are running out of control.
Here is a list of activitie by humans that is plundering the once prinstine ocean beds:
85 million tonnes of wild fish were pulled out from the global oceans last year.
100 million sharks and related species were butchered for their fins
250,000 turtles became tangled in fishing gear
300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses, were killed by illegal longline fishing.
Besides this, three billion individual pieces of litter – about eight million a day pollute the water. 46,000 pieces of discarded plastic are found floating on every square mile of ocean, which kill another million seabirds each year.
Fueling climate change, the water temperature rose and its alkalinity fell. While on one hand, coral barriers off Australia and Belize are devastating, bottom trawling is killing the newly discovered reefs in the Atlantic.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN’s environment programme, said,
Well over 60% of the marine world and its rich biodiversity is found beyond the limits of national jurisdiction and is vulnerable and at increasing risk. Governments must urgently develop guidelines, rules and actions needed to bridge this gulf.
Via: The Guardian