Looking after our oceans

For many of us right now, it may seem like the world simply has too many problems to fix.

As a marine scientist, it can be hard to have problems in the ocean addressed as the physical and emotional distance from ocean issues can paralyse us from action.

Problems like coral bleaching, ocean acidification, changes to ocean circulation, and overfishing of our marine life feel alien in comparison to the land-based issues that are in our backyard.

But the oceans are >70% of our planet - we cannot look away!

The UN Ocean Decade is a great start - increasing funding for various ocean-based research. As is normal with international agreements however, these targets are vague and largely voluntary.

So here is a list of four targets that marine scientists agree must be completed by the end of this decade if we are to save our oceans.

Our oceans are buffering the temperature impacts of climate change by taking up 90% of the extra energy stored by the planet, but oceanic warming has significant impacts for us all.

Research has shown that ocean warming has already caused significant changes in oceanic circulation, forced species to move closer to the poles to escape the heat, increased deoxygenation, and caused an increase in sea level through thermal expansion.

We've heard it thousands of times now and yet it is still the primary issue for the oceans today. We are simply emitting too much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and the primary source of this is the burning of fossil fuels. There is no wriggle room.

In Australia we have plenty of viable and readily available options including hydro, solar, and wind that must be implemented this decade.

Internationally, there is a consensus amongst marine scientists that if the ocean is to remain viable, at least 30% of it must be protected and left to nature by 2030.

Without rapidly adding and expanding marine park areas, marine life and ecosystems simply will not have enough safe havens to remain resilient in the face of climate change and overfishing. Protecting areas like mangroves, seagrass beds and salt marshes do not just protect significant amounts of wildlife and their habitats but also actively sequester and store carbon.

30 x 30 could be an almost entirely selfish endeavour. It would ensure food security and will have an estimated economic benefit of 650 billion to 1.2 trillion dollars aand could create at least 150,000 jobs. 30 x 30 would increase fish populations, size, and diversity.

We are killing fish faster than they can reproduce. Collecting detailed and reliable data on fish populations and their reproduction throughout international waters would allow stronger fishing limits to be put in place.

More importantly however, these limits must be enforced - globally. This means an international effort to monitor and prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

Billions of people around the globe rely on fish as a primary source of protein in their diets and millions make a livelihood from fishing. Not only does overfishing put pressure on the already teetering ecosystems of the ocean, it is a huge risk to food security.

An astonishing 80% of all marine debris from the surface to deep sea sediments are now made up of the at least 8 million tonnes of plastic that enters our oceans annually.

Existing international agreements regarding pollution including the London Convention, London Protocol, and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships have failed to protect our oceans from our burgeoning plastic problem. These must either be re-visited or new agreements established with intention to follow through.

These are all huge asks and may seem impossible in under a decade but as I like to say in the face of my rapidly approaching assignment deadlines - diamonds are made under pressure.