We have barely begun to explore our seas, but our impact is felt on both humans and marine life
We know remarkably little about the oceans that cover most of the Earth, provide half of our oxygen and help to regulate the climate. Maps of the ocean floor are less detailed than those of Mars or the moon. Marine biologists have discovered deeply weird and genuinely wonderful species: boxer crabs wielding anemones like weapons; the rope-like Praya dubia, up to 50 metres long; immortal jellyfish, which unlike any other known creature can revert from maturity to an earlier stage of development, akin to a butterfly becoming a caterpillar. But on one estimate we have identified less than a tenth of ocean-dwelling creatures.
What we can be certain about is that the extraordinary diversity of life in the oceans is under immense and growing threat. This week we learned that the last five years were the hottest on record. Global warming has heated the oceans by the equivalent of one atomic explosion per second for the last century and a half; in recent years the pace has accelerated to between three and six atomic bombs per second.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2FIcKrN
