Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth's surface and play a crucial role in providing food and livelihoods for more than 3 billion people as well as combating the effects of climate change. Yet, alarming trends from declining fish stocks, marine pollution, ocean acidification and habitat destruction threaten marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of coastal communities worldwide. Urgent action is needed to address these challenges and ensure the long-term health and sustainability of the ocean through sustainable fishing practices, marine conservation efforts, pollution reduction and global cooperation to safeguard marine life and ecosystems for future generations.
Target 14.3: Ocean acidification is increasing and will continue to do so if carbon dioxide emissions do not stop rising. An increasing number of countries and stations (from 178 stations in 2021 to 638 in 2024) highlights the growing capacity of countries to observe the continued decline of ocean pH in the global ocean as well as the strong regional differences in the pace of change.
Target 14.6: Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing threatens the social, economic and environmental sustainability of global fisheries, hindering countries' abilities to manage their fisheries effectively. The first binding international agreement to specifically target IUU fishing, the Agreement of Port State Measures, now has 102 States covered under the Agreement (from 25 in 2016), covering 63% of the world's coastal States. States have made good overall progress with close to 75% scoring highly in their degree of implementation of relevant international instruments in 2022 compared to 70% in 2018.
