The ocean is one vast body of water with various faces. It accounts for approximately 71% of the Earth and plays significant roles in environmental and climate systems, and more broadly, in life on Earth.

Beyond its diverse faces – Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern – the ocean is connected to and interacts with other comparatively smaller surface water bodies, such as seas, gulfs, bays, lagoons, estuaries, and groundwater systems.

Ocean ecosystems supply a substantial amount of oxygen to the atmosphere and offer various services that ensure the survival of all species on Earth. As the world observes World Ocean Day with the theme “Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us,” it is time for humans to reflect on our exploitative, violent, and destructive relationship with the ocean and embrace a new beginning.

The Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, highlighted the importance of World Ocean Day, which is celebrated annually on June 8 to underscore the immeasurable importance of the world’s ocean and garner support for their protection. He stated that the ocean and other water bodies are continuously subjected to a barrage of assaults at local, national, and international levels.

“The concept that the ocean cycles itself and acts as a greenhouse gas sink has been misconstrued to mean that the ocean can filter and clean itself no matter what is dumped in it. The ocean and other waterbodies have become dumpsites of all sorts, polluting and extreme exploitation. There are a lot of unusual activities going on in our waters that must not be allowed to continue if we want a healthy ocean and planet.”

Bassey further stated that “corporate interests have been substituted for national and people-centred interests, as communities that live along the coasts, bear the brunt of such abnormalities. Now is the time for all to rise to the occasion to protect the ocean. The continued burning of the Ororo Oil well over a period of five years is a sad commentary on ecocide on our waters.”

Also, Stephen Oduware, a Programme Manager with HOMEF and Coordinator of the Fishnet Alliance, a network of fishers across Africa, emphatically noted that the world’s fisheries depend on the ocean.

“The two major sides of the ocean bordering Africa – the Atlantic and Indian, along with their associated gulfs, are experiencing shortfalls in fishing due to vested and powerful interests. Industrial fishing, including the use of bottom trawlers, is partly responsible for unsustainable fishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the region.

 “These practices not only harm fisheries but also harm the ocean and create imbalances in the ecosystems the ocean supports. These unchecked activities in the territorial waters of Africa must stop. Fishers of the world unite.”

Climate change, primarily caused by human activities, is impacting the ocean. Dead zones are proliferating, pollution from minerals and fossil fuel extraction and production processes is occurring, unsustainable industrial fishing practices are occurring, intentional waste dumping is occurring, and disturbances of the ocean floor and seabeds are among a long list of destructive activities.

As ocean surface temperatures increase, global warming will also rise. Therefore, protecting the ocean from these forms of degradation would ultimately safeguard the Earth. Let’s protect the ocean and force others to respect it because we are the ocean; we are part of the ocean family.

Health of Mother Earth Foundation is an ecological think tank advocating for socio-ecological justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa.

The FishNet Alliance secretariat sits with HOMEF at its international headquarters in Nigeria.

On UN Oceans Day, ahead of the upcoming United Nations Oceans Conference the Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance is calling on governments to take decisive action to safeguard ocean ecosystems from the growing threat of marine geoengineering.  Civil society, including climate justice groups, Indigenous Peoples Organisations, human rights and grassroots groups are urging governments to take action to halt any ongoing current or planned marine geoengineering experiments.

In a statement signed by 126 organisations (including 20 new signatories this year), the HOME Alliance is calling on governments to recognise that oceans face growing threats not only from overexploitation and the climate crisis, but also from dangerous geoengineering experiments that attempt to manipulate Earth’s systems in response to climate change.

Coraina de la Plaza, Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance, said: “Marine geoengineering is not a solution to the climate crisis – it’s a dangerous distraction. Our oceans are not testing grounds for risky, unproven technologies. These large-scale manipulations of marine ecosystems pose serious threats to climate and biodiversity, and the livelihoods of coastal and Indigenous communities. We need real climate solutions rooted in justice, and respect for nature – not technofixes that gamble with the planet’s most vital systems.”

Between 2019 and 2023, proposed marine carbon dioxide removal field experiments have quadrupled compared to the period from 2014 to 2018. However, there has been sustained and strong public opposition to marine geoengineering, with key grassroots-led victories showing growing resistance to marine geoengineering.

These include the shutdown of an ocean alkalinity enhancement trial in Cornwall, UK, by Planetary Technologies, after pushback from local communities, scientists, and environmental organizations, and the shutdown of the Arctic Ice Project due to growing concerns over its ecological impacts this year. Similarly, a marine cloud brightening project was also shut down in Alameda, California last year.

Late last year at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, governments came together and reaffirmed the de facto moratorium on geoengineering, highlighting their commitment to a precautionary approach to geoengineering. The London Convention/London Protocol also calls for precaution on various marine geoengineering technologies including effectively prohibiting Ocean Fertilisation technofix among others.

Despite public opposition and existing restrictive governance in place, marine geoengineering proposals continue to surface globally and mainly driven by the private sector with commercial purposes.

“Governments attending the oceans conference have a responsibility to uphold the Convention on Biological Diversity moratorium on geoengineering, including marine geoengineering, and other existing restrictive frameworks and regulations like London Convention/London Protocol, to ban outdoor marine geoengineering experiments from taking place, and to ensure that any decision taken prioritize human rights and the protection of marine ecosystems,” added Coraina de la Plaza.   

Marie-Luise Abshagen, Head of Sustainability at the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, shared: “At the last UN Oceans Conference in 2022 in Lisbon, we saw a growing commitment of governments and parliamentarians to a deep-sea mining moratorium. Three years later, 33 countries are behind this call. Be it deep sea mining or geoengineering, it is all the same trends – exploiting our oceans resources, ignoring Indigenous opposition, all for the continuation of an industrial model that is destroying our planet. Let’s make the 3rd UN Oceans Conference a marine conference of resistance!”