But new sophisticated submersibles and precise remote sensing have revolutionized oceanography. Researchers are discovering exciting fundamental facts about the oceans and the teeming life the seas support. With this knowledge has come recognition that even landlubbers take much from the sea. Often unwittingly, we are imperiling the oceans. More than three-quarters of coastal ocean pollution originates on land.
Unhealthy oceans hold hidden dangers for everyone.
Over 99 percent of living space on earth is ocean, all habitable by plants and animals. Marine life is astounding in its diversity. An intricate, visually arresting sculpture represents the oceans' biodiversity with an unusual or beautiful example of each phylum of plants and animals, and several distinctive phyla of marine fungi, blue-green algae, and bacteria. A shipboard lab setting focuses on ocean research and satellite monitoring, and points out how ocean currents profoundly affect us. Decisions about ocean conservation will need to address their social and economic concerns.