WWF and ZSL: Looming Apocalypse for Oceanic Life Still May Be Averted

Summary: In September 2015 World Wide Fund for Nature and Zoological Society of London (WWF and ZSL) released a special report on catastrophes and hopes for oceans.

Apollo 17's Blue Marble image of Earth on Dec. 7, 1972: Public Domain, via NASA

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a special edition of its biannual Living Blue Planet Report to spotlight alarming findings and implications of declines in biodiversity detailed in Living Planet Report 2014.

A joint collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, the report timely precedes the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 scheduled to take place as a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City from Friday, Sept. 25 to Sunday, 27, 2015. The mission of conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources is included as number 14 among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals expected to be adopted at the summit.

Founded April 29, 1961, in Switzerland as an international organization focused on biodiversity conservation, the World Wildlife Fund became a charitable trust Sept. 11, 1961, and underwent a name change to World Wide Fund for Nature in 1986. WWF’s official name remains as World Wildlife Fund in Canada and the United States.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) was founded in England in April 1826 as an international scientific, conservation and educational charity charged with promoting and effecting worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. On March 27, 1829, George IV (Aug. 12, 1762–June 26, 1830), King of the United Kingdom and of Hanover (Jan. 29, 1820–June 26, 1830), granted a Royal Charter to ZSL, thereby establishing the charity’s significance.

Humanity’s collective mismanagement of global marine ecosystems, which cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface and account for 97 percent of the Earth’s water, emerges as the compelling culprit in dire marine statistics and trends.

The oceanic environment is clogged with over 250,000 tonnes (551,155.7 pounds; 250,000 kilograms) of more than 5 trillion plastic pieces. Marine vertebrate populations have declined by 49 per cent between 1970 and 2012.

Extinction threats, primarily due to overfishing, loom for one in four species of rays, sharks and skates. Overfishing occurs in 29 percent of marine fisheries.

More than half of reef-building corals in tropical reefs have been lost over the last three decades. Mangrove cover decreased by almost 20 percent between 1980 and 2005.

Sustainable strategies that still may be implemented to avert the tragic trend toward the collapse of marine environments include elimination of bycatch (untargeted catch), overfishing and waste. Expansion in marine protected areas (MPAs), from 3.4 to 30 percent of marine and coastal areas, increases well-being of key habitats and species conservation. Reduction of carbon dioxide emissions protects against catastrophic oceanic acidification.

Living Blue Planet Report 2015 urges immediate design and implementation of globally responsible strategies for conservation and sustained development of the world’s oceanic ecosystems.

Despite inescapable symptoms of fragility that attest to the oceans’ world of hurt, the world’s oceans comprise interconnected ecosystems with the dynamic capability for relatively quick revival in response to effective, resuscitative remedies.

The time is now for humans to turn the tide of catastrophic trends by committing the global community to the critical mission of rescuing the oceans from human-inflicted challenges and tragedies.

Living Blue Planet Report 2015 points to the importance of the Coral Triangle as a global center of marine diversity that includes 76 percent of the world's coral species; map of national parks in the Coral Triangle, Jan. 31, 2009: Benutzer:Devil_m25, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Blue Marble image of Earth taken by Apollo 17 crew: Public Domain, via NASA @ http://www.nasa.gov/content/blue-marble-image-of-the-earth-from-apollo-17

Living Blue Planet Report 2015 points to the importance of the Coral Triangle as a global center of marine diversity that includes 76 percent of the world's coral species; map of national parks in the Coral Triangle, Jan. 31, 2009: Benutzer:Devil_m25, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%9Cbersichtskarte_zur_Lage_des_Korallendreiecks.png

For further information:

McCauley, Laura. "Human Activity Pushing Marine Life to the Brink of Collapse." Common Dreams > World News. Sept. 17, 2015.
Available @ http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/09/16/human-activity-pushing-marine-life-brink-collapse

WWF International. "The Importance of the High Seas." YouTube. Dec. 19, 2012.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmx1lQ_3frA

WWF World Wide Fund for Nature. 2015. Living Blue Planet Report: Species, Habitats and Human Well-Being. Edited by John Tanzer, Carl Phua, Anissa Lawrence, Aimee Gonzales, Toby Roxburgh, and Paul Gamblin. Gland, Switzerland: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), 2015.