Ten amazing facts about our oceans

Like silent giants on our planet, the oceans stretch like endless blue carpets over most of our planet. The world’s oceans are the beating heart of our earth, giving life and keeping the climate in balance.

They are a magical realm that is home to countless creatures and whose mysterious depths are still full of undiscovered treasures and countless secrets. Despite their enormous importance for the climate and the environment, the world’s oceans are neglected and inadequately protected.

The oceans, which form a never-ending blue carpet across most of our entire planet, take up a whopping 70 percent of our entire planet. A large part of this blue treasure chest is still a big secret to people.

Moon surface better explored than oceans
As much as 80 percent of the oceans are an unexplored mystery and have not yet been explored or even seen by humans. By comparison, a much larger percentage of the surfaces of the Moon and Mars have been mapped and explored than our own ocean floor.

1. About 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by the oceans
2. In recent decades, the ocean has absorbed about 90 percent of our planet’s warming
3. 80 percent of the oceans are an unexplored mystery and have not yet been explored or even seen by humans
4. The high seas are home to millions of species and ecosystems, but less than one percent of them are fully protected. They are under increasing pressure from a range of threats, including industrial fishing, pollution and emerging deep-sea mining
5. This year, 100 new deep-sea species were discovered during one expedition
6. But the deep sea is also in acute danger: Huge mining machines could rip open the Arctic seabed and forever destroy the habitat of animals such as orcas and white whales.
7. To protect 30 percent of the oceans by 2030, we need to protect more than eleven million square kilometers of ocean every year
8. In 2023, the global heat content of the oceans was higher than at any time since 1993
9. Last year the oceans boiled every day like never before. They set new heat records every day
10. In total, industrial fishing vessels will have spent more than 8.4 million hours exploiting the oceans in 2022

Effective protection concepts are lacking
A new analysis of the world’s 100 largest marine protected areas shows a lack of effective protection of ocean wildlife, even within supposedly protected areas.

According to Greenpeace, the protection of the world’s oceans promised by governments is not being fulfilled. Instead, harmful activities such as fishing are not restricted and strategies to protect biodiversity are implemented very slowly.

WWF: “No ocean can swallow that much plastic”
Marine heat waves, massive coral bleaching and, most recently, a tragic decline in migratory fish species – these are just some of the warning signs the oceans are sending us. “The consequences of the climate crisis are becoming increasingly clear, overfishing continues unabated and plastic pollution is reaching incredible levels – no ocean can swallow that much,” warns Axel Hein, marine expert at WWF Austria, pointing to eleven million tonnes of plastic produced each released at sea for years.

“The flora and fauna are literally suffocating from our waste. Seabirds die in pain from pieces of plastic in their stomachs, turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and fish confuse small plastic particles with plankton. And microplastic particles also end up in the food chain.”

“Global plastic pollution could triple by 2040 if we don’t take immediate action. Voluntary measures will not stop the flood of plastic,” he warns.