Scientists' Warning of an Imperiled Ocean

We resoundingly agree that humanity must act quickly, with bold transformative actions to safeguard and restore healthy ecosystems in ocean habitats around the globe.

We must immediately and significantly alter our harmful trajectory in order to avoid irrevocably damaging our oceans in multiple ways that will further affect ocean health for both us and future generations. Significant ongoing and imminent activities are degrading ocean health, including destructive fishing practices, oil and natural gas extraction, seabed mining, coastal development, shipping, pollution, and greenhouse-gas emissions. But we already have avenues to mitigate these impacts if we act now, including the cessation of particularly harmful activities, restoration of damaged habitats, strong protection of key and representative ecosystems, reduction in waste and emissions, and global policy shifts that prioritize ecosystem health.

BACKGROUND: In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists published the ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity’ spelling out the alarming trajectory of human activities around the world^[1]. In 2017, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries signed a second warning letter to humanity to caution against our continued wholesale destruction of global ecosystems^[2]. A host of ancillary warning letters focused on a broad array of more specific topics have also been published in an effort to spread this message to a wide audience and to encourage and guide appropriate action by policy makers and stakeholders.  In the recently published publication in Biological Conservation, we reaffirm this message with a warning specifically focused on the ocean.