The Role of Oceans

A vast diversity of life – an estimated 80 percent of all life on Earth - depends on healthy oceans and coasts. There can be as many varieties of fish in two acres of coral reef in southeast Asia as there are species of birds in all of North America.
Oceans and coasts are also vitally important to human communities around the globe. More than one-third of the world’s population lives in coastal areas and small islands that make up just over four percent of the Earth’s total land areas.
We depend on oceans and coasts for food, medicines and protection from storms, among other resources. In fact, oceans provide us with more than $20 trillion annually in ecological goods and services. In addition to providing the fish and seafood that millions of people depend on for food, oceans are the source of anti-viral medicines like those derived from marine sponges, and products used to fight cancer or in bone grafts.
Barrier beaches, coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands offer protection from storms and other natural disasters to over half of the world’s population. Seagrass beds and shellfish reefs filter pollutants from water and mangroves, reefs and kelp forests serve as nurseries for fish.
Once considered a limitless and inexhaustible resource, the oceans of the world are in jeopardy. As ocean use is likely to increase dramatically over the next decade, causing ocean threats to rise, new and innovative approaches are needed to sustain and restore the biological wealth of our oceans and coasts.