Humanity’s future depends on protecting the rapidly changing ocean

However, it has been under duress for some time and going forward faces multiple threats which not only gravely endanger its future health but the future of humanity itself.

Some 550 experts from 86 countries have spent almost five years compiling a 1600-page assessment detailing the challenges the ocean faces. This scientific guide delivers the knowledge humankind needs to protect and sustain the planet.

It’s called the World Ocean Assessment, and here’s what those 1600 pages reveal.

Humans are reshaping marine ecosystems. The global population reached 8.2 billion in 2024, with 37 per cent of those people living within 100 km of the coast.

Inevitably, this has concentrated human and economic activity in vulnerable coastal zones, increasing the extraction of natural resources, infrastructure expansion, waste discharge, and habitat degradation.

At the same time, offshore development is intensifying, with wind farms, deepwater oil infrastructure, and expanding seabed cables and pipelines altering habitats farther from shore.

Data relating to ocean warming and sea level rise is dramatic.

Critical coastal ecosystems, like mangroves and seagrass, continue to shrink.

Species from plankton to marine mammals are shifting towards the North and South Poles as temperatures rise, while non-indigenous species are spreading more easily under altered environmental conditions.

Marine pollution is intensifying.

Each year, 52 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean, contributing to an estimated 24 trillion microplastic particles, which are now known to affect more than 4,000 marine species.

Chemical contamination is also rising, with over 4,000 pharmaceutical and personal care compounds detected in marine waters.

The good news? Some legacy pollutants such as mercury have declined in a few regions.

Marine food systems are a vital source of nutrition and livelihoods, providing 20 per cent of animal protein consumed by humans globally.

Yet the stability of these systems is increasingly at risk:

The ocean economy is valued at $1.5 trillion per year and projected to exceed $3 trillion by 2030.

Coastal and marine tourism supports 174 million jobs.

International cooperation on ocean governance is gaining momentum, but the 57 global treaties relating to ocean protection is resulting in a fragmented approach.

Achieving a sustainable ocean economy requires equity and the prominent inclusion of the knowledge and traditional practices of indigenous communities. Without them ocean health, community wellbeing, and sustainable and equitable development will be more difficult to achieve.

Large gaps persist in ocean knowledge, with only 27 per cent of the seafloor mapped as of 2025, leaving deep sea ecosystems, biological processes, and cumulative impacts poorly understood.

Despite mounting pressures, solutions exist, including nature-based approaches, emissions reduction, and expanded marine protection.

However, even the full restoration of ocean ecosystems would contribute only around two per cent of global climate mitigation targets, underscoring the need for systemic change.

The coming decade is decisive: without rapid, coordinated global action, ocean health will continue to decline, threatening climate stability, biodiversity resilience, food security, livelihoods and the wellbeing of billions.