June is National Ocean Month in the United States, and earlier this month, the whole world observed World Oceans Day, a day that has been celebrated since 2008 with a different theme each year. The theme for 2021 was “Life and Livelihoods.”
Covering 71% of the earth’s surface, the ocean is home to a vast array of life—an estimated 2.2 million species—and provides livelihoods for 40 million people in the fishing industry. But many scientists warn that the health of our oceans is in decline, threatening these species and the humans who depend on them.
The threats to our oceans’ health are multifold, and include deep-sea mining, offshore drilling, and ocean acidification. On today’s episode of The Oxford Comment, we are joined by biological oceanographer Lisa Levin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and contributor to Natural Capital and Exploitation of the Deep Ocean, and Ray Hilborn, a professor at the University of Washington and co-author of Ocean Recovery: A Sustainable Future for Global Fisheries? We tapped into their expertise to better understand the threats posed by overfishing, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
Learn more about Natural Capital and Exploitation of the Deep Ocean and Lisa Levin here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/natural-capital-and-exploitation-of-the-deep-ocean-9780198841661
Learn more about Ocean Recovery: A Sustainable Future for Global Fisheries? and Ray Hilborn here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ocean-recovery-9780198839767
Please check out Episode 62 of The Oxford Comment and subscribe to The Oxford Comment through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our expert authors:
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The Oxford Comment Crew:
Executive Producer: Steven Filippi
Associate Producer: Christina Fleischer
Host: Julia Baker
Science Correspondant: Victoria Sparkman
Music: Filaments by Podington Bear is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
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