Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene May -June 2017 | Page 17

2017
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
space on the planet by volume
Over three billion people
depend on marine and
coastal biodiversity for their
livelihoods
Globally, the market value of
marine and coastal resources
and industries is estimated at
$3 trillion per year or about 5
per cent of global GDP
Oceans contain nearly 200,000
identified species, but actual
numbers may lie in the
millions
Oceans absorb about 30
per cent of carbon dioxide
produced by humans,
buffering the impacts of
global warming
Oceans serve as the world’s
largest source of protein, with
more than 3 billion people
depending on the oceans
as their primary source of
protein
Marine fisheries directly or
indirectly employ over 200
million people
Subsidies for fishing are
contributing to the rapid
depletion of many fish species
and are preventing efforts
to save and restore global
fisheries and related jobs,
causing ocean fisheries to
generate US$ 50 billion less
per year than they could
As much as 40 per cent of
the world oceans are heavily
affected by human activities,
including pollution, depleted
fisheries, and loss of coastal
habitats
Scope of the Challenge
Oceans sustain life on earth. They
shape the climate, feed the world,
and cleanse the air we breathe. They are
also vital to our economic well-being,
ferrying roughly 90 percent of global
commerce, housing submarine cables,
and providing roughly one-third of
traditional hydrocarbon resources (as
well as forms of energy such as wave,
wind, and tidal power). But the oceans
are increasingly threatened by a dizzying
array of dangers, from the resource
competition and overfishing to climate
change and pollution.
Threats to the world’s ocean are
inherently transnational, touching the
shores of every part of the world,
and almost universally exacerbated by
poorly regulated human activity. Nearly
30 percent of the world’s fish stocks
are depleted due to overexploitation.
Meanwhile, port-based megacities dump
pollution into the oceans, exacerbating
the degradation of the marine
environment and the effects of climate
change. In addition, the oceans have
become the world’s garbage dump—at
the heart of the Pacific Ocean, scientists
have discovered the North Pacific Gyre,
where particles of plastic outweigh
plankton six to one.
While the oceans have always been
farmed for their immense resources,
new technologies are making old
practices unsustainable; when
commercial trawlers scrape the sea
floor, for instance, they bulldoze entire
ecosystems. And while commercial ships
remain on the surface, they produce
carbon-based emissions that pollute the
air. When carbon dioxide is released
into the atmosphere, much of it is
absorbed by the world’s oceans. The
water, in response, warms and acidifies,
destroying habitats like wetlands and
coral reefs, and resulting in expansive
dead-zones along many coastlines. And,
glacial melting in the Polar Regions is
raising global sea levels, which threaten
not only marine ecosystems but also
humans who live on or near coasts.
Innovations like offshore drilling and
deep seabed mining are helping humans
extract resources from unprecedented
depths, but with questionable
environmenta l consequences. With
the melting Arctic emerging as a
promising frontier for entrepreneurial
businesses and governments, access
to the northernmost oceans portends
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • May - June 2017
17