Ocean Facts • More than half the Earth’s population lives within 100 miles of the ocean • The ocean helps regulate weather around the Earth. • 50% of the world’s protein come from fish yet 90% of all the big fish in the oceans are gone. • We are fishing at a rate of more than 40% more than the oceans can sustain. • There is more biodiversity in a coral reef than the Amazon Rain forest, yet 40% of the coral reefs are now gone. • 90% of the pollution in the ocean comes from plastic. There are five swirling gyres of plastic in the ocean, the largest being twice the size the state of Texas in the Pacific. There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean. • Ocean acidification threatens extinction of thousands of species in the ocean • Climate Change is causing sea level rise which will damage ocean habitat, erode beaches, bleach coral reefs, and contaminate some coastal water supplies with salt water intrusion. It also increases hurricane risks. • There are about 400 Dead Zones in the Ocean, the largest about the size of the state of New Jersey. Fertilizer pollution is one of the major causes.
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