Top Ocean Experts Sound the Alarm Over Growing Marine Crisis Due To Climate Change

On the opening day of a global science conference, French fishery scientist Clea Abello presented research showing that marine protected areas could protect commercially valuable fisheries.

More than 2,000 scientists, advocates and policymakers from at least 100 countries convened this week at the One Ocean Science Congress, warning of a mounting marine crisis and promising recommendations to solve it—not only for the sake of life below the surface, but for the entire planet. 

“The ocean is suffering at the cause of humanity,” said the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who spoke at the event’s opening ceremony Tuesday at Port Lympia. “Either we save our oceans or the entire race will pay.” 

Rising sea temperatures due to global warming, ocean acidification, plastic pollution, and offshore oil and gas developments are just some of the threats plaguing the ocean and jeopardizing humans in the process. So are overfishing and other destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling—an industrial fishing technique that drags large weighted nets along the seabed to herd target species, destroying almost every other living thing in its path. 

“Sound research shows global human health is intrinsically linked to a healthy ocean,” said Peter Thomson, the United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy for the ocean. 

The ocean produces more than half of the oxygen humans breathe. It helps regulate temperatures by absorbing excess heat and carbon dioxide, and by distributing hot and cold waters around the world via its underwater currents.

An estimated 3 billion people depend on the ocean for their livelihoods, according to the United Nations. But, at the congress’s opening ceremony, Thomson said, “the ocean’s health is currently, measurably in decline.” 

Now is the time to chart a new future for the ocean, he said. 

The four-day congress, organized by the French National Centre for Scientific Research and Ifremer, the only French public research institute dedicated solely to ocean studies, runs through Friday and serves as a prelude to the third United Nations Ocean Conference beginning here June 9. 

“Faith has been placed upon this congress to serve as the scientific pillar of the U.N. Ocean Conference,” said Thomson. “We’re expecting that the scientifically compiled conclusions of this congress will inform the leaders and the representatives of governments and civil society who will be attending the conference.” 

By the end of the oceans summit, U.N. member states intend to adopt a voluntary political declaration that will promote the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources called “Our Ocean, Our Future: United for Urgent Action.”

Science in Action 

“Science for ocean action” is also the motto of this week’s congress. Over the next three days at least 500 oral presentations and 300 roundtable discussions will cover a wide range of topics from deep sea ecosystems to carbon dioxide removal approaches and ocean-based renewable energy such as offshore wind, solar, wave, thermal and tidal energy. 

Several sessions will examine the effectiveness of marine protected areas, which limit human activity in order to promote the restoration of vulnerable ecosystems and climate refugia such as coral reefs that are showing signs of resilience in the face of rising ocean temperatures, which are now causing most corals to bleach.

On Tuesday, French fishery scientist Clea Abello presented research she’s been conducting at Marbec, a marine research institute based at the University of Montpellier in France, on the role marine protected areas can potentially play in mitigating projected negative impacts of climate change on the Mediterranean Sea. She said it is warming 25 percent faster than the rest of the world’s oceans due to it being largely enclosed by mountains and coastal urban areas.

Her research uses a climate model to forecast changes in climate over time based on a worst case high emissions scenario—in this case a 30-year period between 2070 and 2100. She found that marine protected areas may help mitigate the collapse of large groundfish like hake and grouper that live and feed at the bottom of the sea and have commercial value.

But only a network of well connected and designed marine protected areas will make a difference. 

According to the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 30 percent of all marine areas should be protected by 2030 in order to halt biodiversity loss, but progress towards reaching this ambitious goal is slow, Abello said. 

Currently, around 8 percent of the Mediterranean Sea is protected on paper, and less than 1 percent is protected in reality, Abello said.

“We have to make sure that we’re not just going towards the target and just putting paper parks,” she said. 

In the coming days at the congress, she said, she hopes to continue “sounding the alarm” on this issue and promoting more protections for the Mediterranean Sea. “It’s such a rich area,” she said, “but we’re far behind.” 

Cover photo:  Fishermen sort their catch from a trawl fishery on a fishing boat in the Port of Molfetta on Dec. 1, 2023. Credit: Davide Pischettola/NurPhoto via Getty Images