Oceans Face Triple Threat from Human Activities Reports European Environment Agency

A new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) spotlights the current state of the oceans and offers a cautionary note: they are under increasing threat from various sources including pollution, overexploitation and climate change.



Because ocean activity is submerged, we tend to forget that ocean degradation has been ongoing for many decades now. Oceans cover more than half of the combined territory of the EU Member States, but in EU territory only a small percentage of marine waters are protected, far less than the amount of protected land.



The oceans are essential to human life; their depths teem with marine species, many thousands of which are still unknown to us. The oceans work in an intricate balance with the atmosphere, the land and the skies, regulating the climate, producing oxygen and removing carbon from the atmosphere to generate favourable conditions for life on Earth. But increased pollution and climate change triggers ocean acidification which leads to changes in species distribution and ultimately an imbalance in the ocean's ecosystems.



The EEA has pinpointed a number of reasons for the continuing threats to the ocean, including overexploitation of fish stocks and introduction of invasive species these problems are mainly being caused by human activities.



To alert us to this threat, the EEA has produced the fourth in its series of '10 messages for 2010'. Each message concentrates on an aspect of ecosystems and biodiversity in the EU. The fourth message, just published on the EEA website, spells out the consequences of human activities on the ocean and why it needs urgent action.



The messages stress that there is a lack of integrated data for marine ecosystems preservation and consequently unknown variables are much higher for marine environments than for land preservation.



Marine biodiversity is currently protected by establishing sites under the Habitats and Birds Directives of Natura 2000, the EU-wide network for preserving the environment, but there have been problems with identifying sites and delays in assessing their status.



Evidence shows that establishing marine protected areas helps marine ecosystems to recover from damage; the extent of the recovery is affected by the size of the area and how long it has existed.



EU governments agree that an ecosystem-based approach is the best way to deal with activities involving the marine environment. This approach will be used to achieve the aims of the integrated cross-sectoral strategy for sustainable use of the marine environment, which is being implemented by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Integrated Maritime Policy.



The EEA also recommends that synergies between marine and maritime policy framework and already established marine policy will benefit preservation of marine biodiversity in the EU