Marine Life Protection

Protecting marine biodiversity secures vital resources for communities that depend on the ocean for survival.

Marine biodiversity ensures the stability and resilience of ocean ecosystems, and protecting it supports the health of the entire planet and the communities that rely on marine resources for survival.

Marine biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are interconnected, with NbS like restoring seagrass beds and coral reefs enhancing biodiversity, while also addressing climate change and providing ecosystem services like coastal protection.

What Is Biodiversity, and Why Is It Important in Marine Environments?

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem. A biologically diverse marine environment can have a variety of different species of fish, marine mammals, corals, seagrass, macroalgae (seaweeds), plankton, and even microorganisms. This variety, in turn, contributes to maintaining balance with a stable food chain and resilience against external stressors like sedimentation, ocean warming, pollution, storms and exotic species taking over.

How Does Marine Biodiversity Impact the Planet?

Healthy marine environments are crucial to climate stability. Plants like phytoplankton play a key role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing over half of the world’s oxygen. Marine ecosystems also support essential human industries like tourism, fisheries, and food production. Protecting marine biodiversity helps maintain the health of the entire planet and preserve marine resources for the communities that rely on them for survival.

How Much of Our Food Comes from the Ocean?

Around 17% of global animal protein comes from marine sources, including fish, shellfish, and seaweed. This figure can be higher in coastal communities where seafood typically serves as a critical source of nutrition and livelihood.

Why Are Marine Environments Important to Global Food Security?

Marine environments provide food and livelihood for over 3 billion people globally, which is nearly 50% of the entire population. Keeping marine ecosystems healthy ensures that they can continue to serve as food sources for future generations.

How Do Marine Ecosystems Protect Against Climate Change?

As the lungs of the planet, the ocean acts as a giant carbon sink. It absorbs approximately 25% of the CO2 emissions released in the atmosphere and captures 90% of the excess heat from these emissions. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes capture and store large quantities of carbon. Meanwhile, coral reefs and kelp forests help buffer shorelines from storm surges and erosion, which can be exacerbated by climate change.

What Are the Current Threats to Marine Ecosystems?

Marine ecosystems face significant pressure from human activities and environmental changes such as:

Overfishing – Unsustainable fishing depletes fish populations, disrupts food chains, and threatens the balance of marine ecosystems.
Pollution – pollution, sedimentation and chemical runoff from agriculture and industry harm marine species and habitats. It’s estimated that 8 to 10 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean each year, and this affects over 700 marine species. Meanwhile high levels sedimentation entering the marine ecosystem can ‘smother’ marine plant species resulting in the loss of important habitats.
Climate Change – The rise in ocean temperatures causes coral bleaching and sponges to ‘melt’. It can also alter marine habitats and cause the migration patterns of marine species to shift.For example, invasive species like the sub-tropical sea urchin, Centrostephanus rodgersii are moving into New Zealand’s waters and thriving in the warming temperatures. With no local predators to keep their numbers in check they are taking over and causing vital local marine ecosystems to collapse – learn more here. Ocean acidification, which is caused by increased carbon dioxide absorption, also weakens coral skeletons and disrupts the development of shellfish and other marine organisms.
Habitat Destruction – Coastal development, bottom trawling, and deep-sea mining cause lasting damage to marine habitats and threaten the survival of vulnerable species.
Bycatch – Non-target species like seabirds, turtles, dolphins, and sharks often get caught by fishing vessels. These interactions can lead to population decline, in some cases bringing species like the Antipodean albatross close to extinction. There are solutions commercial fishers can easily adopt to help reduce bycatch and at Live Ocean we have been supporting work to create a Seabird Safe Fishing Toolkit which will help significantly reduce seabird bycatch from surface long-line fishing.

Addressing these threats requires global cooperation to enact sustainable fishing regulations, reduce pollution, and protect key marine habitats on the high-seas.

What Types of Conservation Projects Benefit Marine Life?

Examples of conservation projects aimed at protecting marine life include:

Establishing no-fishing zones and marine protected areas (MPAs) helps fish populations recover and marine ecosystems regenerate.
Habitat restoration projects like kelp and coral restoration can help marine ecosystems recover and restore biodiversity to key areas. As the health of the ecosystem improves so does it’s resilience against future damage.
Monitoring whale populations and implementing strategies to reduce ship strikes can encourage the recovery of large marine mammal populations. As marine mammals like whales are often indicator species, this research can also provide vital insights into the overal health of the ocean, especially in more remote locations on the high seas.
Beach clean-ups, waste management improvements, and plastic bans reduce the amount of plastic entering bodies of water, which then helps prevent marine life from consuming these pollutants or getting entangled in them.

Conservation projects like these not only protect marine species but also ensure that ecosystems can recover from the effects of climate change and help protect the ocean for future generations.

How Can Everyday Individuls Contrribute to the Protection of Marine Life?

People can actively protect marine life, support experts working on nature based solutions, educating themselves and their friends and family about the (often invisible) issues the ocean faces and reducing their carbon footprint. They can also contribute to science by taking part in research activities. Projects like Marine Metre², for example, are on a mission for New Zealand to have the best understood seashore in the world. To do this they need community members to survey their local seashore and track changes in marine biodiversity. Users can create interactive 3D models of the survey sites, helping communities visualize and monitor coastal changes over time. This information is then fed into a global database enabling ordinary people to contribute to the work of scientists and conservationists to better understand and protect ocean ecosystems. In addition, participating in beach clean-ups, advocating for marine protection policies, and supporting businesses with a B-Corp rating or who align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially SDG14 can make a difference.