Because today June 8 is World Oceans Day

Oceans are one of the largest oxygen mines for living species, as well as custodians of 80% of the world’s biodiversity. That’s why during the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Environment Summit a day dedicated to these ecosystems was proposed. However, the UN General Assembly officially recognized June 8 as the date of the celebrations only in December 2008, and it is only from the year after that World Oceans Day is celebrated.

The theme of the 2022 edition

An anniversary today aimed at raising awareness on a subject that is still often underestimated. This year the theme of World Oceans Day is “The Ocean: Life and a Half of Life”, a very clear title that focuses on the many forms of life which are hosted by ocean ecosystems and the impact that oceans have on the very existence of humanity. Furthermore, point 14 of the now famous 2030 Agenda is recalledwhere the need to protect underwater life is reiterated.

The problems to be faced: plastic populates the oceans, fishing damages them

Pollution and climate change are indeed endangering heavy oceans repercussions on the animal species that populate marine waters. To date, one of the main problems is plastic. According to the study released earlier this year in the journal “Global Change Biology” and conducted by a team of researchers from the “Atlantic University” of Florida, on the surface of oceans are found 51 trillion microplastics. These are small fragments, invisible to the naked eye, and which are the result of the degradation of plastics dispersed in the sea.

Then there is the constant phenomenon ofoverfishing, or overfishing. This increasingly massive activity, and above all carried out in short intervals of time, prevents the fish to reproduce according to their natural cycle. Not to mention the enormous danger deriving from oil, spilled into the sea due to accidents (such as that of 1989 of the supertanker Exxon Valdez which, damaging itself against a reef, poured over 40 million liters into the sea) and with serious repercussions on local ecosystems.