For the first time, Australian scientists mapped marine wilderness areas across the globe. They found out that only 13.2% of Earth’s ocean can be classified as “wilderness.”
Only 13% of the world’s #oceans is considered marine wilderness—crucial areas of water mostly undisturbed by humans where biodiversity is able to flourish.https://t.co/37RlshACyB
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 27, 2018
Kendall Jones, the lead author of the study, defined wilderness as “a place where the environment and ecosystem is acting in basically an undisturbed way that’s free from human activity.”
Jones’ team analyzed the effect of fifteen types of “stressors” on the ocean. These stressors consist of a variety of human activities. According to a researcher from the Wildlife Conservation Society,
Studies have shown that places free from intense levels of human activity have really high levels of biodiversity and high genetic diversity [but] we didn’t have an idea of where across the globe these intact places could still be found,”
From the University of Southampton, Dr. Rachel Hale noted the following:
Marine wildernesses are largely overlooked in terms of conservation priorities when compared to terrestrial ones, and it is extremely interesting to see where in the world these lie and what habitats they cover. They could be important corridors connecting habitats and species populations.”
Scientists concluded that the remaining areas of the wilderness were around the Arctic, Antarctic, and the Pacific Island nations.
Jones explains that while the main stressor stems from fishing, other factors include; plastic pollution, chemical spills, and etc. He comments, “Plastic pollution is one of the big things that we want to work out a way to get data on. It’s so widespread and so hard to manage that we really want to get a good idea of where it is and where is most affected.”
THE UN WANTS TO PROTECT OCEAN WILDERNESS
The United Nations plans to reshape the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Officials want to mandate conservation and sustainable use of international waters. This decision will be on the agenda starting September 2018.
Featured Image via/ National Geographic
