The head of the United Nations has warned the world's seas are in catastrophe as an international conference aimed in the direction of restoring the health of our oceans got underway on Monday in Portugal.
On day one of the event in Lisbon, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned 20,000 individuals on day one of the event that humans needed to “turn the tide” on their relationship with the ocean.
“Sadly, we have taken the ocean for granted, and in recent times we're going through what I may want to call an ocean emergency," Guterres said.
Heads of state, scientists, and senior officials from more than 100 countries will work together over the next five days to adopt a declaration for the protection of the ocean and its resources.
Ocean hazards
Threats embody global warming, pollution, acidification, and deep-sea mining that lacks proper regulations.
Microplastics, now found in inner Arctic ice and fish within the ocean's internal maximum trenches, are predicted to kill more than a million seabirds and over 100,000 marine mammals each year.
While the oceans cover some 70 percent of the earth's surface and provide food and livelihoods for billions of humans, there is no international framework in place to ensure their sustainability.
Study sounds alarm on New Zealand's sinking coastline and developing sea levels
Pristine coral reef decided near Tahiti, unaffected by climate change.
The oceans generate 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe and provide important protein and nutrients.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Joo Gomes Cravinho said he hoped the UN Oceans Conference may want to provide the “decisive impetus” needed to save the seas from catastrophe.
The event also hopes to position itself as the inspiration for two crucial summits later this year: the COP27 climate summit in November, hosted by Egypt, and the long-not-on-time COP15 UN biodiversity talks in Montreal.
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