First Global Integrated Marine Assessment Report

“The First Global Integrated Marine Assessment” – also known as the First World Ocean Assessment – was prepared by a 22-member Group of Experts and it has been released by the United Nations on January 22, 2016. The report, which assessed the state of world’s oceans from scientific as well as socio-economic point of view, was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December 2015.

The report will help in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG-14, which deals with conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas, and marine resources. The report warns about excessive pressure exerted on oceans by various factors. It also says that sustainable use of oceans cannot be achieved without coherent management of all sectors of human activities affecting the oceans.

Human impacts on oceans

Now each individual on this earth has only one fifth of a cubic kilometre of ocean from which his needs of oxygen supply, lifetime freshwater supply, and sea food are met. The human dependence on oceans has influenced the location of human settlements, economic activities and social rules, including the national and international treaties and laws related to oceans. As per the report, by 2050, the global population will reach 10 billion and only one eighth of a cubic kilometre of ocean will be available for each individual needs.

The report has examined and listed various human pressures on oceans. They are as follows:

• Climate change including ocean acidification and changing salinity and oxygen content, among others.
• Inputs to the ocean such as toxic substances, plastics, waterborne pathogens.
• Human-induced mortality and physical disturbance of marine biota such as capture fisheries, including by-catch.
• Demand for ocean space and changes in use of coasts and seabed.
• Underwater noise from shipping, sonar and seismic surveys.
• Interference with migration from structures in the sea or other changes in routes along coasts (wind farms, barrages, coast reinforcement).
• Introduction of non-native species.
• Stratospheric fall-out from atmospheric nuclear-weapons testing.
• Oil spills, overfishing, and unregulated tourism on beaches.

Impact of fisheries on marine biodiversity

The report points that the use of ocean’s fish and shellfish reserves for industrial purposes and human consumption has been increasing at an alarming level. According to the FAO data, the global fish production from capture fisheries and aquaculture has grown at the rate of 3.2% in the past 50 years. Eleven Asian countries led by China and seven other countries were responsible for 76% of production from capture fisheries. Around 58 million people across the world are employed in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. Overfishing has been a critical problem with FAO pointing that 29 per cent of assessed stocks are presently overfished.

Some of the impacts of overfishing include the following:

1. Eradication of distinct local varieties.
2. Impacting on non-target species, such as birds and reptiles that get caught in nets.
3. Reduction of habitat complexity and disturbance of seabed communities.
4. Change in population size and body-size composition of species, resulting in smaller fish.
5. Changes in the whole food web. The removal of top predators may result in abundance and composition of lower trophic levels, impacting even unrelated fisheries.

Some of the environmental impacts from aquaculture include the following:

1. Pollution of water due to waste from the farms
2. Destruction of mangroves due to conversion into fish farms.
3. The genetic integrity of wild fish stocks population will be damaged due to interbreeding with fish which have escaped form the farms.
4. Spread of antibiotic resistance due to the use of antibiotics.

Gaps in management of human impacts

The report highlighted the importance of availability of comprehensive data for governments and other organisations to make informed decisions about the impact of human activities on oceans. This may be a challenge as it requires bringing together a large number of different data sets. The techniques required for collating the data are still a work in progress. For example, the Ocean Health Index is attempting to provide comprehensive assessment of the oceans at the global level. But it suffers from the lack of reliable data. Hence, the report calls for development of methods for integrated assessments, which consider all economic, social and scientific aspects along with giving quantified information about oceans in all parts of the world.