Ten countries in the western Indian Ocean are banding together to create a network of marine conservation areas under the banner of the Great Blue Wall.

The idea is to push through conservation areas, including those that straddle national boundaries, to bridge the gap between how much of the ocean is protected and how much needs to be secured. A recent assessment revealed the cost of failing to do so: coral reefs in the region are at high risk of collapsing in the next 50 years.

“Most of what needs to be done is already happening, governments are creating Marine Protected Areas [MPAs], local communities are setting up locally managed marine areas,” said Thomas Sberna, a regional head for Eastern and Southern Africa at global conservation authority the IUCN. “But is it happening fast enough, is it big enough? No.”

Only around 5-8% of the marine area in the Indian Ocean is under some form of legal protection, a far cry from the goal of protecting 30% of Earth’s land and oceans by 2030. Known as “30 by 30,” this goal has gained traction globally ahead of a landmark biodiversity summit this year.

Read More: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/great-blue-wall-aims-to-ward-off-looming-threats-to-western-indian-ocean/

At the first meeting of the Ocean Decade Data Coordination Group on December 16th, 2021, twenty-five (25) expert members expressed a strong commitment to transforming the UN initiative into a true “knowledge revolution” as they help co-deliver ambitious ocean data and information goals for sustainable development.

Established under by the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, the UN body responsible for coordinating the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030, ‘the Ocean Decade), the Data Coordination Group brings together 25 experts from 12 countries. These experts represent various industries, fields and stakeholder groups who will work to reinforce and focus efforts to significantly enhance ocean data and information over the course of the Decade.

“The success of the Ocean Decade will very much depend on our ability to generate, digitize, preserve, manage, openly exchange and, most importantly, significantly increase the usefulness volume and range of ocean data, information and knowledge, so it may guide decisions and policy choices for sustainable ocean planning and management,” said Vladimir Ryabinin, IOC-UNESCO Executive Secretary.

More Information:https://www.oceandecade.org/

The earliest life forms on earth first appeared in the ocean, while the first terrestrial life migrated from the ocean. Up until now, the ocean keeps on being the most important instrument on preserving life on earth.

The third Friday of May is celebrated as National Endangered Species Day across the globe to raise awareness about endangered species and wildlife. As it gives us the opportunity to increase our knowledge about wildlife and endangered species and take key steps to save them. Since the first industrial revolution, earth has lost a great deal of species due to human activities and technological advances. Alas, the industrial development isn’t in accordance with sustainable consumption and production. The modern marine ecosystem now has to pay the price.

More information:https://greeneration.org/

For the first time since the initial IUCN Red List assessment, scientists, including the Save Our Seas/Ocean Foundation’s Project Leaders, have reassessed the extinction risk to all 1,199 chondrichthyan* species. And the news is bad. Despite having survived at least five mass extinctions during their 420-million-year history, more than two-thirds (37.5%) are now estimated to be threatened with extinction. That’s up from around a quarter (24%) in 2014.

From the majestic reef manta ray to the giant great hammerhead shark, and even the bioluminescent velvet belly lanternshark, they all have one thing in common: they’re caught (often unintentionally) in fisheries, and it’s threatening their survival.

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In the strange, dark world of the ocean floor, underwater fissures, called hydrothermal vents, host complex communities of life. These vents belch scorching hot fluids into extremely cold seawater, creating the chemical forces necessary for the small organisms that inhabit this extreme environment to live.

In a newly published study, biogeoscientists Jeffrey Dick and Everett Shock have determined that specific hydrothermal seafloor environments provide a unique habitat where certain organisms can thrive. In so doing, they have opened up new possibilities for life in the dark at the bottom of oceans on Earth, as well as throughout the solar system. Their results have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.

On land, when organisms get energy out of the food they eat, they do so through a process called cellular respiration, where there is an intake of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide. Biologically speaking, the molecules in our food are unstable in the presence of oxygen, and it is that instability that is harnessed by our cells to grow and reproduce, a process called biosynthesis.

Read More: https://scitechdaily.com/new-possibilities-for-life-in-the-strange-dark-world-at-the-bottom-of-earths-ocean-and-perhaps-in-oceans-on-other-planets/amp/