Each point of theoceans, which cover more than 70% of the planet, has been affected by human activity in one way or another, and inmore than 40% pollution is very intense. The worst affected areas include the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the South and East China Seas, the Caribbean Sea, the eastern coast of North America, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bering Sea and parts of the western Pacific, as revealed by the first map of the human impact on the oceans, published today in the magazineScience. According to the study, only the polar regions seem less affected for now, as there the human presence is less prominent.
Benjamin Halpern, researcher at theCenter for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis of the University of California, and his team have collected on this map17 parametersdifferent, including fishing, spills, maritime traffic, population pressure, invasive species, the state of coral reefs and even warming. ?? Our results show that when the individual impacts are synthesized, the picture is much worse than most of us expected. It was certainly a surprise to me ??, Halpern acknowledges.
Another striking fact is that 80% of the world’s oceans are exploited by thefishing. “There is not even a place where fish can hide (…), fishing boats are everywhere,” says Kim Selkoe, co-author of the study and researcher at the University of Hawaii. Although without a doubt the marine inhabitants most affected by man are thecorals, since according to the new study more than half are seriously threatened.
