The current environmental condition of our oceans

The current environmental condition of our oceans is anything but good. The biggest threat to our oceans is the ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is direct result of the excessive carbon emissions, and it causes huge problems for corals and some other sea creatures. Ocean acidification could in the end result in total disruption of marine food chain and lead many marine creatures towards the extinction.

In order to stop further ocean acidification world needs to drastically reduce current level of CO2 emissions. Unfortunately Cancun climate talks haven't done much for oceans as world has once again failed to agree on new international climate deal so the acidification will likely further continue.

World needs to protect as much marine areas as possible. According to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity the countries have committed to protect 10% of marine areas by 2012 but this commitment looks unlikely to become reality. For instance, if we take a look at the situation in EU we can see that at this moment less than 1% of marine areas in Europe are protected.

Current conservation efforts are not enough and there are already many marine species that look to be heading for extinction, and in years to come when climate change strengthens its impact it is very likely that many sea creatures will perish from the face of the planet.

This year's situation in The Gulf of Mexico has created tremendous damage to marine life by affecting thousands of marine species and habitats. Sadly, Gulf oil spill is only one of the dangers facing marine ecosystems. Offshore platforms are still operating in many parts of the world, and the environmental disaster of this magnitude could once again occur, even sooner than we expect it would.

Many people still fail to see that global biodiversity depends directly on the amount of species present in the oceans, and biodiversity in our oceans is currently in the state of rapid decline.

Unless we improve the environmental condition of our oceans we will leave tremendous environmental mess to our future generations and they will be the ones that will be paying for our mistakes.

Protecting marine biodiversity is the priority, and this can be done with the establishment of new protected marine areas, as well as increasing marine research because science should play key role in developing management and conservation measures that will ensure the future of our oceans and the resources on which humanity depend.