CARE FOR OUR OCEANS
1. THE OCEAN CONFERENCE IN NICE
Among the activists were representatives of a wide variety of religious and spiritual organizations, all of whom realize that we humans have a great moral responsibility to protect the *Full Sea (*=see also Appendix) and, even more importantly, to truly improve its health. First and foremost through attention and research, but above all through (the financing and legal regulation of) concrete measures.
“The ocean is the source of life that connects us all, and as religious organizations, we not only have the opportunity, but also the responsibility to remind everyone what is really at stake, so that we do not slide into false solutions or into *commodification and destruction of the ocean.”
2. WISHES of numerous organizations:
1. Protect and restore at least 30% of our oceans by 2030 through (expansion of) protected marine areas by means of effective area-based conservation measures.
This is not only about quantity (geographical expansion), but also about the quality of protection. Marine ecosystems must be effectively protected from harmful activities, including destructive fishing practices (e.g., bottom trawlers), offshore oil and gas activities (drilling rigs, etc.), and other harmful industrial activities (e.g., wind farms and offshore fish processing plants).
2. Support the moratorium on deep-sea mining. The depths of the ocean must be protected from exploitation that could cause irreversible damage to ancient ecosystems. The international community must give priority to the precautionary principle: do not intervene/act until science and consultation can lead to responsible management, in this case particularly of the deep ocean.
3. Ratify and implement the Treaty on the High Seas (the Full Sea Treaty) (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement) as soon as possible. This will provide the legal framework needed to protect marine biodiversity and promote greater equality in international waters. These waters outside national jurisdictions make up almost two-thirds of the world's oceans. They store very large amounts of carbon (mainly through sediments on the seabed) and are home to enormous biodiversity, both flora and fauna. This biodiversity (which is still being discovered) has remained largely unprotected until now.
5. We must increasingly recognize that the oceans play a vital role in regulating the climate. Ocean-based climate solutions must be supported by ensuring consistency between the results of UNOC research and the latest *IPCC reports. There is an urgent need for binding measures to tackle ocean warming, *acidification, oxygen depletion, and sea level rise. At the same time, fair, equitable, and rights-based *blue carbon initiatives and nature-based solutions must be strongly reinforced.
3. OUTCOMES of the UNOC3 Conference:
1. The Full Sea Treaty (see above) has been signed by more than 50 countries and is expected to reach the minimum of 60 soon, after which it will become legally binding and can enter into force. When we realize that arbitrary and uncontrolled fishing has depleted or overfished nearly 90% of all fish stocks in the seas, the need for this Treaty becomes abundantly clear.
See the short film by the High Seas Treaty Alliance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F0jIhKK38A
The need is very urgent: micro- and nanoplastics are penetrating our organs and brains (including through the food chain). They can cause inflammation, disrupt hormones, and weaken the immune system.
5. A coalition has been formed against the extinction of sharks and rays in particular, more than 30% of which are already endangered, even though these animals are essential for maintaining a healthy biological balance.
7. In addition, numerous other commitments to (expand) no-take zones have been made.
In short: there is growing awareness and a powerful and positive movement. This movement and awareness must now be vigorously continued!
Hopefully, a little more information about the oceans and their life (and suffering) can help you, the reader, in this regard. Therefore:
Below is some more information about life, stratification, and cohesion in the oceans, followed by a brief explanation of some important concepts in the Appendix.
4. A LAYERED LIVING WHOLE: the three major zones/layers in the deep ocean.
Scientific insights into how an ocean lives, produces life, and serves life can help us to realize the deeper, spiritual meaning of these enormous “bodies” and to receive the wisdom that can lead humanity to a more conscious relationship with water, the source and womb of all life.
This zone, which extends from the surface to a depth of about 200 meters, produces half of the world's oxygen and supports most of the world's fisheries, providing food and income for millions of people.
This crucial region faces serious and converging threats. Due to the unbridled expansion of mass fishing, 90% of all fish stocks are completely depleted or overfished, while various human activities have destroyed nearly half of marine nurseries, including *mangroves and *seagrass.
Climate change, including ocean warming, has led to widespread *coral bleaching, with projections of 90% reef loss by the middle of this century. *Ocean acidification threatens shellfish and many other organisms in marine food chains, while pollution, particularly from plastic and sewage and chemical discharges, is creating ever-larger “dead zones” where little life can survive.
Rising sea levels and increasing storms and cyclones further endanger vulnerable coastal and island communities, home to billions of people. These factors increase pressure on the waters that are most essential to ocean productivity and human livelihoods.
2. THE TWILIGHT ZONE: (mesopelagic zone)
This zone extends from 200 to 1,000 meters deep and is home to the largest animal migration on Earth, a daily vertical movement of countless organisms that creates a vital biological carbon pump. Scientists estimate that this still poorly understood region contains ten billion tons of fish biomass, yet it faces emerging threats from multiple directions.
3. THE MIDNIGHT ZONE: (bathypelagic zone)
This zone, the least researched and least scientifically understood part of the ocean, exists in perpetual darkness under extreme pressure at a depth of 1,000 to 4,000 meters. Despite this extreme environment, it is home to extraordinary biodiversity. *Bioluminescent organisms illuminate the darkness, while unique communities thrive around *hydrothermal vents through *chemosynthesis. These ‘deep’ ecosystems are now also facing unprecedented threats through advanced technologies, as deep-sea mining targets the most biodiverse areas, namely where at mineral-rich hydrothermal vents *polymetallic nodules, formed over millions of years, can be found. Bottom trawling damages deep-sea habitats, which take centuries to recover, while the effects of climate change and pollutants, including microplastics, are already being felt even at these remote depths. In this environment human disturbances cause damage that will last for generations. What we destroy in the blink of an eye may never recover during our lifetime. Moreover, we still know far too little about the long-term consequences in both smaller and larger contexts.
* Within the ‘sunny zone’ the upper layer: the dynamic and relatively ‘thin’ tidal zone.
* Below the ‘midnight zone’ is the abyssopelagic zone (the abyss zone) (4,000 - 6,000 m) and below that, where it occurs, the so-called hadopelagic zone (the 'underworld' zone).
OUTLAWED
Without protective global legislation, each of these zones is outlawed: anyone can try to take advantage of them at their own discretion. Often, the use of so-called territorial waters is already (partially) regulated/protected by national legislation. However, this does not (yet) apply to waters outside national coastlines and jurisdictions. These cover almost two-thirds of the Earth's total water surface and supposedly belong to ‘no one’. But it is much better to say: they belong to themselves (have a right to exist in their own right) and also belong to all of us, to all of humanity, who are of course entitled to use them in a sustainable (i.e. self-regenerating) manner and therefore also bear joint responsibility for them – if only out of well-understood self-interest.
We are already seeing a number of effects of uncontrolled intervention, e.g. the disruption of the biological balance due to overfishing and the acidification due to the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the water.
Growing insight makes it clear that there are probably even more aspects and effects that we do not yet (sufficiently) know or understand.
CARE for our oceans is therefore of the utmost importance!
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APPENDIX
* Bioluminescence is a form of chemoluminescence in which living organisms produce light through a chemical reaction in their cells. This occurs in a wide range of biological organisms, including bacteria, algae, insects (such as fireflies), deep-sea fish, and fungi.
* Bottom trawling: an incredibly destructive fishing method in which a weighted net is dragged across the seabed. This causes large-scale damage to our oceans. (pictures: left: an example of the great wealth before and right the devastated plain after ‘fishing’)
* Chemosynthesis: a process in which microorganisms, mainly bacteria, obtain energy from chemical reactions of carbon dioxide with, for example, iron and sulfur, instead of from sunlight. They thus make their own food (glucose) from inorganic substances. It is an alternative to photosynthesis (as in green plants in sunlight) and plays a crucial role in ecosystems where sunlight is not available, such as in deep oceans and other ‘dark’ conditions.
* Commodification or commercialization: the process in which something that is not a commodity, such as an idea, a service, an experience, or even a human being, is transformed into a tradable object or merchandise. An economic value is assigned to it, making it available for sale or exchange on a market. It is an unauthorized claim to power that does not do justice to the intrinsic value, goodness, or beauty of someone or something.
* Hydrothermal vents: openings in the seabed where hot, mineral-rich water flows out of the earth. These vents are created when seawater infiltrates deep into the earth's crust, is heated by magma, and then erupts back out. They are often found in volcanically active areas. These are usually places where tectonic plates are moving apart (spreading zones) or where one plate is diving under another (subduction zones).
* Blue carbon initiatives: initiatives to capture carbon dioxide through the world's oceans and coastal ecosystems. This carbon is stored in the form of biomass and sediments from mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds. Blue carbon is the most effective (and relatively inexpensive and natural), but overlooked, method for long-term carbon sequestration and storage. Equally important, investments in blue carbon provide valuable ecosystem services that contribute to people's ability to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
[ Detailed information on this potentially important development: https://oceanfdn.org/nl/blauwe-koolstof ]
* Deep-sea mining: an extreme form of overfishing, aimed in particular at collecting technologically crucial minerals such as manganese, iron, nickel, copper, and cobalt, and in special locations, particularly near hydrothermal vents, also copper, zinc, gold, and silver. The general argument for this is that these metals are needed for sustainable products in the context of the energy transition, such as solar cells, electric cars, robots, communication equipment, etc.
*IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: This Panel is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its task is to “provide governments at all levels with scientific information they can use to develop climate policy.” The IPCC produces well-founded and comprehensive reports on the various aspects of climate change.
* Carbon pump: in particular the biological carbon pump: Phytoplankton (plant plankton) forms the basis of the marine food chain. In the sunlit ocean layer, they assimilate carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and transfer carbon through the food chain when consumed by other organisms (including zooplankton).
* Mangroves: Mangrove forests, also known as mangrove swamps, thickets, or mangals, are unique coastal ecosystems dominated by salt-tolerant trees and shrubs that are adapted to the tidal zone where saltwater and freshwater mix. These tropical and subtropical forests thrive in coastal areas and provide crucial ecological and economic benefits. Mangrove forests are highly productive ecosystems that provide essential habitat, nursery, and food sources for a wide range of marine and terrestrial species, including fish, birds, and other wildlife. They also play a crucial role in protecting the coast by reducing erosion, storm surges, and wave action.
* Underwater noise pollution: This is a growing problem in which human activities such as shipping, construction, seismic surveys (to study underground movements), sonar (communication and measurements using sound waves), sand extraction, and explosions cause unnatural and excessive noise in the ocean. This can be harmful to all kinds of marine animals, which depend on sound for communication, navigation, finding food, behavior (e.g., reproduction), and health.
* Bleaching of coral reefs: higher temperatures and higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are changing the chemical balance in seawater (making it more acidic), causing many coral reefs to die (dissolve) and thus lose their water-purifying and life-giving function (for animal and plant organisms).
In addition, like all life in the oceans, they also suffer from ruthless industrial overfishing, including trawl nets that ‘scrape’ the seabed.
* Acidification / ocean acidification: the phenomenon whereby the pH of seawater on Earth is becoming increasingly lower as a result of a higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is absorbed into the water. Between 1950 and 2021, the average pH of seawater fell from 8.15 to 8.05, corresponding to a 30% increase in acidity (increase in H+ ions). This ever-increasing acidification poses a threat to the food chains associated with the oceans.
All oceans together cover two-thirds of the Earth's total surface area.
* Precautionary principle: if an action could potentially harm humans or the environment, and there is no scientific certainty about the harm, then that action should not be taken unless it can be proven that no harm will occur. This principle was strongly emphasized at the first global environmental conferences of the United Nations (such as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992). It is an expression of respect and caution, but it is at odds with human (short-sighted) greed.
* Heat absorption: Oceans absorb 90% of the planet's excess heat, which is mainly caused by (the excessive production of) greenhouse gases. As global temperatures have risen, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels, ocean water has also become warmer, which now appears to be one of the main causes of stronger and faster storms, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, and the like.
Higher temperatures (of both water and air) are also causing glaciers and sea ice to melt, raising sea levels and threatening an estimated 2.8 billion people worldwide who live in island states and coastal communities and very often depend on the products of the sea for their livelihood.
* Seagrass: a functional group of plants that have adapted to submerged life in brackish and salt waters. Seagrass communities can harbor a rich algae flora and fauna. They also have a very important filtering function and eliminate many pathogens. In the tropics, seagrasses are a very important food source for many marine reptiles.
* Zones: origin of the names epipelagic, etc. Pelagic comes from the Greek pelagos: sea; epi: on, above; meso: middle; bathy, bathos: depth; abysso: abyss and hado from hades: underworld.
* Zooplankton and phytoplankton are fundamental components of plankton, the diverse collection of organisms that float in aquatic environments. Phytoplankton are microscopic, plant-like organisms that perform photosynthesis, i.e. produce oxygen and glucose from water and carbon dioxide using the energy of sunlight. Zooplankton, on the other hand, are animal-like organisms that consume phytoplankton or other small particles as food. They are crucial to the aquatic food chain, with zooplankton often feeding on phytoplankton and then becoming food for larger organisms themselves.
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Johan Muijtjens, July, 2025
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