Humans Screwing Up More Than Half the Earth's Oceans

[The Straight Story]

Scientists Make First Map of Man's Marine Footprint
By Brandon Keim EmailFebruary 14, 2008 | 2:00:00 PMCategories: Oceans


The first comprehensive analysis of human impacts on marine ecosystems shows that humanity has profoundly affected nearly half of the world's oceans, with just a few spots remaining pure.

Pure is a loaded term -- after all, humans are part of nature, too. But however one defines the integrity of ecosystems, the bottom line is that humans change the oceans just as much as we change forests or prairies. It's just easier to see the changes when they're not underwater.

Enter a team of researchers led by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis' Benjamin Halpern, who in a study published today in Science used satellite images and custom-made models to evaluate the oceanic impact of coastal development, fishing, fertilizer runoff, shipping traffic and other activities.

Their fine-grained analysis -- precise to the square-kilometer scale -- showed that just four percent of Earth's oceans are still pristine; coral reefs, seagrass beds, rocky reefs and continental shelves have been particularly hard hit, while soft-bottom shallows and the deep ocean have fared best.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/wild-blue-yonde.html