Programme: Living Oceans

Our ocean covers 71% of the earth’s surface and contain over 90% of the world’s living biomass. As a source of protein for billions of people worldwide, it is critical for our survival. This dependence however, goes beyond being just a primary food source. Half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean and it is estimated to be our largest natural carbon reservoir, absorbing about one-third of anthropogenic CO2 missions. The ocean is therefore of fundamental importance in the battle against climate change.

This critical resource and the extraordinary life it supports, is however increasingly threatened by overexploitation, pollution, habitat degradation and the changing climate.

As seafood demand rises and industrialised fishing gains pace, scientists have painted a gloomy picture of the collapse of global fish stocks, should we continue business as usual. Symptomatic of persistent overfishing, many high-value upper-trophic-level species of importance to the marine ecosystem are now depleted to economic extinction and threatened with biological extinction. In Asia, this has led to a ‘race to the bottom’ where decreasing mesh sizes of fishing nets ensure that species are indiscriminately over fished, including the juveniles of commercially important species. Although aquaculture is part of the solution, it is also part of the problem, with the demand for the raw materials for fish and animal feed (fish caught in the wild) rising,

Overall, there is little doubt that the future of our fish stocks has been traded for short-term gains. There is widespread consensus that Asia’s fisheries need to move rapidly to protection, management and, in some cases, full restoration.