Little touched: only 13% of the world's oceans are wilderness

An infinite blue on the horizon: The oceans seem a lot like a mysterious and untouched by the width of the man. In fact, only 13% of

oceans can still be described as wild

This is at least the result of a study reported by researchers in the journal "Current Biology". Marine

The fauna is found mainly in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as in remote overseas territories of the Pacific such as French Polynesia.

Wilderness refers to areas that are completely or virtually untouched by humans, "Looking at the North Sea at our door, for example, we see a cultural landscape: every year, trawling per square meter," says Thomas Brey , Ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven and Deputy Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity. (HIFMB), from: "The desert is the opposite: nature does what she wants." If humans attack such a wilderness, the effects are often unclear. "Wilderness is the evolutionary system, and if we change such functional systems for our purposes, we do not make them better," says Brey.

Such Interventions in the Ocean Ecosystem

were now conducted by the team of environmental biologist Kendall Jones of the Australian University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) . Although the decline of wilderness has already been studied and documented extensively, such research on the oceans has not yet been done.

For the mapping of the oceans, scientists have identified 19 artificial stressors, called stressors. These include, for example, commercial shipping, the use of fertilizers and various types of fisheries with all their consequences. Researchers have now identified areas that have been exposed to very little human influence. At first, they clung to climate change as a factor. Otherwise, scientists write, they would not have found a maritime desert.

Biologists then compared 16 ocean areas to assess the effects of various stressors. They have again included climate change. They found great differences. For example, in the hot region of the Indo-Pacific, there were only 16 million square kilometers of marine wilderness, or 8.6% of the ocean. In temperate southern Africa, there are only 2000 square kilometers. It's just one percent of the ocean. "We were surprised to see how little marine wildlife remains," commented lead author Kendall Jones in a statement released for the study. "The oceans are vast and cover more than 70% of our planet, but we have managed to affect almost the entire ecosystem."

However, in an independent classification, ecologist Brey reports some difficulties in the study: "Global claims still have a data problem," he says, so the data situation for different regions is of different scope, so that gaps would appear for the analysis. "These shortcomings are not addressed here," says Brey.Also, all stressors would be treated equally.A stressor is for example, the development of the seabed Ecologically this does not necessarily have to be detrimental For example, 'fishing off wind farms should not be fished, which is good because fishing, especially fishing bottom, has the most severe impact on marine ecosystems, "says the ecologist

. Only five percent of the marine wildernesses they identify are protected.However, the list of areas Marine protected areas (marine protected areas, MPAs) are absent from the Antarctic Ross Sea, the largest MPA, as noted by Thomas Brey. As part of the German delegation of the Commission on Living Marine Resources of Antarctica (CCAMLR), he negotiated its creation.

Despite these criticisms, Brey shares the findings of the study: "The study may not be accurate, but his statement is correct." Such work was good for the sustainable protection of marine life But that does not work without political will: "We saw the Ross Sea: the MPA could only be established when an agreement was reached at the highest political level."

However, such negotiations, especially with regard to international waters, time, as different political and economic interests should be reconciled – the time, which, according to the authors of the study becomes rare.The danger that wild areas be lost more Early would also be magnified by the fact that technological progress is allowing people to fish deeper and deeper.Moreover, the consequences of climate change, according to lead author Kendall Jones: "Thanks to a warmer climate. ud can now be fished in some places that were previously safe because of the ice cover all year. "

More important, so the conclusion of the scientists are now international agreements on the environment for recognize the unique value of marine life and set goals for their conservation. "We know that these areas are shrinking at a catastrophic rate, and their protection must become the focus of multilateral environmental agreements," said James Watson, WCS's scientific director and biologist at University of Queensland. The co-author of the study warns, "If that does not happen, these wild areas will probably disappear in 50 years."