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The global community is universally united on the need to enhance urgent action to protect life in the ocean, marine and coastal biological biodiversity that is critical for the survival of people and planet.

New research has also shown that the health of the ocean is directly linked to the health of humans everywhere.

During the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (COP16) summit in Cali, Colombia in October 2024, it was disclosed that there are only six years left to deliver the biodiversity target nations set to protect the ocean. The summit called for much higher ambitions by governments to achieve this goal.

Scientists say the world needs to establish at least 190,000 small marine protected areas (MPAs) in coastal regions alone and an additional 300 large MPAs in remote offshore areas globally by 2030 to meet the target set in an international agreement.

Despite the proven benefits of coastal MPAs to nature and people, MPAs aren’t being established at the pace required to achieve the global target. Experts cite three main obstacles to scaling coastal MPAs. These are lack of awareness, inadequate governance and the wrong business models.

Just before the Cali convention, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa, resulted in countries adopting the historic Apia Commonwealth Declaration for One Common Resilient Common Future.

The Apia Declaration calls on member states to protect and restore the ocean across a range of key conservation areas, including protecting 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030. The Commonwealth Declaration on marine conservation and protection was supported by a new study released by Dynamic Planet and National Geographic Pristine Seas.

Direct link

For the first time, the study quantified the number of MPAs needed to reach the global target of protecting 30 per cent of our ocean by 2030, which world leaders agreed to at COP15 in Montreal, Canada in December 2022.

The ocean has long sustained coastal communities that rely on it for their food, livelihoods and wellbeing. These benefits don’t stop at the shoreline, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). New research commissioned by the Ocean Panel shows that the health of the ocean is directly linked to the health of humans everywhere.

This new research illustrates that a healthy ocean and its biodiversity can offer critical benefits to all people such as new medicines and technologies, nutritious and sustainable diets and opportunities to bolster physical and mental wellbeing.

These benefits aren’t a given, notes the WRI. Policymakers must act swiftly to curb greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, overfishing and other practices that are degrading the health of the ocean. Otherwise, many of the ocean’s potential benefits to human health could be lost even as we are just beginning to realise their full potential.

Mounting research shows that access to the ocean can directly benefit human health, specifically in communities that have socio-economic disadvantages and typically less access to nature, with coastal residents more likely than inland dwellers to meet recommended levels of physical activity.

Blue prescriptions

This reduces the risk of many communicable diseases such cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The ocean also provides positive impacts on mental health. For example, in Indonesia during the Covid-19 pandemic, exposure to and interaction with the ocean served as a ‘buffer’ against negative outcomes like depression and anxiety.

These effects are so strong that some medical practitioners are starting to administer so-called “blue prescriptions”, which call for time spent in the natural ocean and coastal spaces to promote health instead of relying on pharmaceuticals.

The ocean’s benefits aren’t reserved for coastal dwellers, either. Globally, US$5 trillion is spent each year on coastal and marine tourism. This represents approximately half of all tourism, reflecting the value that visitors place on time spent near the ocean.

These human health benefits are strongest when the ocean itself is healthy. Research suggests that countries with more protected ocean areas have lower mortality rates. Conversely, increased ocean pollution has proven negative health effects.

For example, a significant amount of toxic micro-plastic has been found in seafood. Individuals with identifiable micro-plastic in their arteries are at 2.1 times higher risk of heart attack, stroke or death from any cause than individuals without such identifiable micro-plastics.

Ocean biodiversity can inspire new medicines and biotechnology. Marine species have evolved in competition with each other over millions of years to survive in diverse and sometimes extreme ocean environments. During this time, they have developed a wide array of adaptations that can help create new medicines and health-related biotechnologies.

For example, some bryozoans (sedentary, filter-feeding aquatic invertebrates) create chemical compounds called “bryostatins” when their cells change food into energy. Certain bryostatins are currently being tested as anti-cancer drugs.

Marine-derived medicines are not a new concept. The earliest example dates back some 5,000 years, to China in 2953 BCE. The first marine-based drug approved by the US Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Cytarabine, was developed in the late 1960s.
To date 23 marine-derived pharmaceuticals have been approved and an addition 33 are in clinical trials. These drugs are already used to treat inflammation, immune system disorders, skin pathologies, infectious diseases and cancers.

Food security

Over 3 billion people currently depend on seafood as their main protein source. Sustainably managed, the ocean would produce enough food to nourish many more. This offers a critical pathway toward improving food security in a world where around 828 million people still suffer from hunger and more than 3.1 billion are unable to afford a healthy diet.

Ocean-based food sources are threatened on multiple fronts. Climate change is warming the ocean, increasing its acidity and decreasing its oxygen content. This is disrupting marine food chains and shrinking certain fish populations – including some of the more nutritious and commercially important seafood species.

Even if global warming is limited to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the availability of key nutrients such as iron, calcium and omega-3 from catches is expected to fall by 10 per cent due to species decline, studies reveal.

Under a “business as usual” scenario, where global warming may reach 4-5 degrees C (7.2-9 degrees F) by 2100, nutrients from fisheries could decrease by 30 per cent.

Marine pollutants, overfishing, illegal fishing and globalisation also strain fishery stocks and put fishers’ livelihoods at risk. Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is estimated to cost low and middle-income countries between US$2 billion and US$15 billion annually.

Solutions to these threats are typically most successful when they involve those most impacted – the local communities that rely on fisheries for their food and livelihoods.

A sustainably ocean-based economy provides opportunities to improve health and address inequality. The ocean isn’t just a source of medicine, food and recreation. It’s a major economic driver, with ocean-based industries contributing approximately US$2.5 trillion to the global economy each year, according to the WRI.

Fisheries, aquaculture operations and the fishery supply chain support the work of more than 500 million people worldwide. Their incomes directly impact theirs and their families’ health through access to food, healthcare and other necessities.

Intact coastal ecosystems also serve as a buffer against climate change impacts like storms and floods which can destroy homes, livelihoods and infrastructure.

These benefits are only possible if the ocean’s resources and ecosystems are managed responsibly. Unsustainable practices both diminish the ocean economy and increase social inequity by threatening the health and livelihoods of those that are most dependent on it.

Climate-induced declines in ocean health could cost the global economy US$428 billion per year by 2050 and US$1.979 trillion per year by 2100.