Earth is a water planet.
The ocean covers 71 percent of the surface of our world and plays a vital role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating climate and weather patterns, and providing food and jobs for millions of people worldwide. As a result of destructive human activity, however, the health of our oceans and the life they support is in jeopardy. Commercial whaling much reduced from its former scale but still in existence, has severely depleted whale populations worldwide, driving some to the brink of extinction. Fish stocks are plummeting in virtually every ocean and sea. Seabirds, hundreds of thousands of sea turtles and marine mammals are entangled and drowned by irresponsible fishing practices every year.