Human Impact on Ocean Mapped

"Fishing, climate change and pollution have left an indelible mark on virtually all of the world's oceans, according to a huge study that has mapped the total human impact on the seas for the first time. Scientists found that almost no areas have been left pristine and that more than 40% of the world's oceans have been heavily affected."

"'This project allows us to finally start to see the big picture of how humans are affecting the oceans,' said Ben Halpern, assistant research scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who led the research. 'Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me.'"

"Human impact is most severe in the North Sea, the South and East China Seas, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf, the Bering Sea, along the eastern coast of North America and in much of the western Pacific.

The oceans at the poles are less affected, but melting ice sheets will leave them vulnerable, researchers said."