On World Ocean Day, we recognize and celebrate the ocean—Earth’s most vital life-support system and an irreplaceable resource that deserves immediate and sustained protection.
Our ocean covers over 71% of Earth’s surface and is fundamental to planetary health. It regulates our climate, absorbs approximately a third of human-produced carbon dioxide, and generates more than half of the oxygen we breathe. Without a healthy ocean, life as we know cannot exist.
The ocean plays a vital socio-economic role worldwide. Around 60 million people depend on ocean-related work, including 57 million whose livelihoods come directly from fisheries. Each year, the ocean provides approximately 200 million tons of fish and shellfish, helping to feed about 20% of the global population and serving as a primary source of protein for more than one billion people, particularly in developing countries. This dependence underscores our collective responsibility to preserve marine ecosystems for current and future generations.
In fulfilling this responsibility, we must be mindful of the gender inequality that persists in ocean-related activities, with women’s vital contributions to the sector often remaining largely unrecognized.
The ocean is under growing pressures from a range of interconnected threats, including climate change, pollution, and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing, resulting in ocean warming, sea level rise, increased coastal flooding, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, sea-ice loss, and possible disruptions of vital ocean currents.
Coral bleaching, biodiversity loss with habitat destruction and species extinction combined with invasive species expansion, are resulting in disrupted food security and increased socio-economic challenges. The ocean’s vital capacity to absorb carbon and heat and thus mitigate climate impacts is now diminishing as we continue to overtax this precious system.
The future of the ocean depends on the decisions and actions we take today. We note the recent strengthening of international efforts aimed at improving ocean governance, including the entry into force of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (the BBNJ Agreement), reflecting continued progress in multilateral cooperation.
On World Ocean Day, we invite all stakeholders to prioritize the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean through coordinated global, regional and local action, as well as through stronger and more efficient cross border ocean management, integrated coastal zone management and source-to-sea approach at the operational level. The choices we make today will echo through the generations, because without a healthy ocean there cannot be a healthy planet. Our very existence depends on today’s actions against these challenges.
