No Clean Oceans Left! - 15/02/08

By Jim • Feb 15th, 2008 • Category: Latest Green News

No areas of the world’s oceans remain completely untouched by humanity’s influence, according to a new study.Every area of the oceans is feeling the effects of fishing, pollution, or human-caused global warming, the study says, and some regions are being affected by all of these factors and more.

A team led by Ben Halpern of the University of California, Santa Barbara, created the first global map that shows the various kinds of damage being done to marine ecosystems.

The team assigned scores to 17 human impacts and tallied them up for every ocean region to reveal the overall effect people are having on marine life.

“The ocean is so big, I figured there would be a lot of areas that we hadn’t gotten to or that people rarely get to,” Halpern said.

“But when you look at the map, there are huge areas that are being impacted by multiple human activities,” he said. “It was certainly a surprise to me.”

The project revealed that more than 40 percent of the world’s marine ecosystems are heavily affected.

Major hot spots include the North Sea off the northern coast of Europe and Asia’s South China Sea and East China Sea.

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Jim is a full time video games journalist/geek, and the recent birth of his son has made him rethink his entire attitude regarding the environment and the future of the planet. Jim is MYG's resident news hound, so if you have a story please drop him an email.
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