In 2015, the United Nations created the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda included 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at addressing the most pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges facing the modern world. Among them, SDG 14: Life Below Water is the main goal concerned with protecting and sustaining the world’s seas, ocean, and marine resources. However, other SDGs also influence the health of marine ecosystems, and this highlights how achieving marine sustainability requires collective effort across multiple sectors and communities.
SDG 14: Life Below Water is the goal directly concerned with conserving marine resources and using them sustainably. It includes targets for the following objectives, among others:
However, the SDGs are interconnected by design, and other goals contribute both directly and indirectly to ocean health, including:
More than 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean. They serve as habitats for a vast variety of species and also play a vital role in regulating the climate worldwide. SDG 14 directly tackles the threats facing marine ecosystems: pollution, overfishing, habitat destruction, and climate change.
It’s not only biodiversity that suffers when marine ecosystems fail. Declining ocean health also threatens the coastal communities that depend on the sea’s resources for food and livelihood. Initiatives to protect the ocean guarantee that future generations will also be able to enjoy its many benefits.
Marine SDGs play a direct role in the well-being of coastal communities, as these communities generally depend on the ocean for employment, food security, and general economic stability. Sustainable fishing practices help keep local fisheries afloat and secure long-term fish stocks. Protecting marine ecosystems also makes coastlines more resilient against climate challenges like extreme weather and rising sea levels. Lastly, many of the world’s coastal communities also depend on tourism, which in turn depends on healthy and thriving marine environments. This makes efforts to preserve ocean health economically as well as environmentally beneficial.
Achieving sustainable development for the world’s oceans and seas requires a combination of individual actions, policy measures, and organised conservation efforts. These might include establishing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to safeguard biodiversity, sustainable fishing regulations, and initiatives to reduce pollution.
Concerted climate action aimed at reducing carbon emissions is also a must for more sustainable oceans, as these efforts mitigate ocean acidification and protect coral reefs from further degradation. Live Ocean’s support for research into kelp forests and their role in coastal carbon cycles concretely illustrates the relationship between climate and ocean health.
Both individuals and organisations can advance marine SDGs by making sustainable day-to-day choices and advocating for ocean protection. Consumers concerned about ocean health can choose to support organisations which align with the SDGs. Those looking to get even more involved can participate directly in conservation efforts like beach clean-ups and citizen science projects.
Businesses, for their part, can commit to responsible sourcing and to reducing their environmental footprint through necessary policy changes. Organisations in relevant sectors may also stand to gain from investing in marine restoration initiatives.
Live Ocean Foundation supports Citizens of the Sea, a charity co-founded by New Zealand Geographic and Cawthron Institute. The organisation’s objective is to train and mobilise seafarers to collect and share critical information on ocean health—such as eDNA samples, environmental datasets, and 3D models of coral reefs, among others. As part of its most recent citizen science initiative, Citizens of the Sea recruited sailors participating in the 2024 Pacific Rally to gather high-quality environmental data on the Pacific Ocean, the largest ocean in the world. Learn more about this exciting project here.
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