Healthy Oceans in brief
The earth is a Blue Planet,
with oceans covering over two-thirds of the surface, providing over 90% of the
available space for plants and animals to live, helping to control the planet’s
weather, and containing the richest variety of life forms. Yet our oceans are
in deep trouble. Destructive overfishing, coastal pollution from fertilizers
and toxic materials, habitat destruction from bottom trawling and coastal
dredging and filling, and manmade climate change all effect the ocean’s health
and ability to bounce back from changes.
People used to think that the
oceans were so vast and marine animals so plentiful that humans could not damage
marine ecosystems. We now know that is not true and our oceans are vulnerable. Many
populations of whales are depleted or threatened with extinction like northern
right whales of which 350 remain. All seven species of sea turtles are either
threatened or endangered. A respected group of marine scientists recently predicted
that at the current rate of fishing most commercially valuable fish species
will collapse in the next 40 years all over the world. In U.S. waters about one quarter of all fish stocks are
depleted and many are not being rebuilt to healthy levels.
To restore the oceans to
health, US PIRG supports a moratorium on new offshore drilling for oil and gas,
a halt to destructive overfishing which is depleting our oceans of fish,
establishment of marine protected areas where some limitations are placed on
fishing, actions to reduce the flow of nutrients and toxics into coastal
waters, and aggressive action on global warming.
