Industry, pollution and global warming are having a significant impact on our oceans.

• 70% of the air we breathe comes from oxygen produced by ocean algae
• There are over 1 million commercial fishing vessels, twice as many as in 1970.
• With new boats, nets and tracking devices they are taking fish at twice the rate the ocean can produce.
• Some 70 percent of the most valuable marine fisheries are either over fished or fished to the limit.
• Over 100 million sharks are killed each year. Most have their fins cut off and are thrown back in the sea to die.
• $10 billion in annual government subsidies keep worldwide fishing capacity at this level.
• Twenty-seven million metric tons of bycatch (unintentionally caught fish) die every year.
• Each year an estimated 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed as the result of eating or being strangled by plastic.

• be an informed consumer of fish and other seafood. Ask where the fish comes from and the status of the fishery.
• avoid buying over-exploited stocks: Atlantic swordfish, wild-caught Atlantic salmon and sharks.
• join an ocean conservation group.