According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world’s oceans may be at a point of no return. According to a report recently released by UNEP, it now appears that exploitation of deep ocean waters is resulting in damage that may soon be irreversible. Increasing ocean pollution is cited as a fundamental cause for concern. For example, the Central Pacific Ocean has up to 6lb of marine litter to every 1lb of plankton. In other areas, its estimated that there are nearly 46,000 pieces of plastic litter per square mile.
The dangers of overfishing are also cited as reaching a critical point. Industrial fishing vessels account for only about one per cent of the world’s fishing boats, but they account for around 60 per cent of all the fish caught on the planet. The economies of scale these operations achieve has served to reduce the prices for seafood. And as demand for seafood rises, the world’s stocks of tuna, cod, swordfish and marlin has been diminished by as much as 90 per cent in the last century.
Source: Times On-Line
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