Why is it important to protect the oceans?
Well, quite simply because the oceans are essential to life on Earth. We don't always know it, and yet the oceans produce around 50% of the oxygen we breathe thanks to phytoplankton which participate in photosynthesis. Phytoplankton are all the bacteria and microalgae found in surface water.
In reality, it is a lung for the planet, just like the Amazon forest. The oceans also help absorb 30% of global CO2 emissions to store them in the depths, thus regulating our climate and temperatures. Without the oceans, the heat would make the Earth difficult to inhabit.
And then we must not forget that we are an integral part of the food chain. The micro-particles released by plastic waste are ingested by animals who mistake them for food and we ultimately find them on our plates. For every 300 grams of mussel flesh, we ingest an average of 300 plastic microparticles! A real health emergency, especially since seafood constitutes a vital source of food for a large part of the world's population.
And yet, CO2 emissions continue at the rate of mass production of plastic products. We are already talking about a possible 50% increase in the quantity of CO2 released into the atmosphere by 2030. If things continue at this rate, the most pessimistic scenarios predict that most fish could practically disappear by 2035, leading to the collapse of the entire fishing economy. The destruction of marine biodiversity is therefore a major challenge for our societies, at many levels.