Five steps to save our oceans

The ocean is facing accelerating decline due to greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and overfishing, but the author argues this can be reversed by 2030 through fidelity to the Paris climate agreement and Sustainable Development Goal 14. Current progress includes the Commonwealth's Blue Charter, the International Maritime Organisation's strategy to halve shipping emissions by 2050, and the establishment of the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area. To ensure a sustainable blue economy, the author proposes five immediate actions: prohibiting subsidies for harmful fishing, ending the consumption of illegally caught fish, increasing Marine Protected Areas to 10% by 2020, improving tourism stewardship, and prioritizing funding for ocean science over space exploration.

• Human activities are causing a cycle of ocean decline characterized by acidification, warming, oxygen depletion, and pollution from plastics, industry, agriculture, and sewage.
• Global efforts to protect the ocean include the 2017 UN Ocean Conference, the Commonwealth's Blue Charter involving 53 nations, and an International Maritime Organisation strategy to reduce global shipping emissions by 50% by 2050.
• The world has reached approximately 7% of the Sustainable Development Goal 14 target to establish 10% of the ocean as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by 2020, with recent contributions from the UK, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil.
• The author proposes five immediate steps to save the oceans: eliminating subsidies for illegal fishing via the WTO, ending the consumption of illegally caught fish (valued at $23bn annually), expanding MPAs into the high seas, improving stewardship in the $390bn marine tourism industry, and shifting funding from space exploration to ocean science.

APA

Thomson, P. (2018). Five steps to save our oceans. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/five-steps-to-save-our-oceans/

Chicago

Thomson, Peter. Five steps to save our oceans. World Economic Forum, 2018. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/five-steps-to-save-our-oceans/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Thomson |first1=Peter |title=Five steps to save our oceans |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=17 May 2018 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/five-steps-to-save-our-oceans/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{thomson2018five, author = {Thomson, Peter}, title = {{Five steps to save our oceans}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = may, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/five-steps-to-save-our-oceans/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }