Ocean regulates our climate and are well connected to climate change, although no many people think about that. It also generates most of the oxygen we breathe, cleans the water we drink and provides us with food. However, for too long, human society has taken the world's ocean for granted.

Nowadays world's oceans is facing serious threats. Pollution and overfishing are harming this irreplaceable resource. International marine group Oceana has reported that “according to the European Commission, 88% of our fish stocks are overexploited. Of these, 69% are at risk of collapse. The main causes are fleet overcapacity, the setting of excessive Total Allowable Catches (TACs) that respond more to the interests of the fishing industry than to scientific recommendations, and illegal fishing practices, including the use of illegal fishing gear such as driftnets.” Europe's responsability on exhausting oceans goes further, as Las Palmas, in Canary Islands, has been identified as the centre of of the illegal fishing trade in the Atlantic ocean.

Also, Oceana points out that European seas are among the most contaminated. Mediterranean Sea is the most contaminated by hydrocarbons, with more than 400,000 tons per year; close to 15% of all the hydrocarbon waste on the planet.

Sources:The Guardian, The Ocean Project, Oceana.