Human Impacts on Marine Life
Evidence suggests that overfishing, oil spills, pollution, and climate change are just a few examples of how human actions are changing the ocean's environment beyond what it naturally is. Numerous scientific investigations have found that there are many locations where marine species are diminishing. This has an effect on marine ecosystems and may have unfavorable effects on biodiversity. Before pushing the oceans to their breaking point, we must control the risks.
Oil covered a dead sea turtle that was lying in Barataria Bay in Louisiana. Photo Copyright Joel Sartore
In the midst of garbage bags, milk bottles, and other debris drifting off one of Oahu's top beaches, a manta ray and a green sea turtle graze. Photo Copyright John Johnson
Off the coast of Tenerife, in the northeast Atlantic Ocean, a loggerhead sea turtle swims entangled in abandoned fishing gear. Photo Copyright Francis Pérez
Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching at Lizard Island. Photo Copyright XL Catlin Seaview Survey
The Jan Bjorn, one of the few remaining whale boats in the Lofoten fishing community, is used to transport a whale. Photo Copyright Marcus Bleasdale
Off the coast of Djibouti, in the Gulf of Tadjoura, swims a whale shark with scars from a propeller strike. Photo Copyright Thomas P. Peschak
To capture the enormous sharks, the fishermen of Pamilacan utilized hooks made of hardened steel. Photo Copyright Jürgen Freund
An Inuit hunter's freshly killed seal is bleeding on the sea ice. Since the seal is still alive, the hunter has separated it from the breathing hole so that it cannot flee. Photo Copyright Paul Nicklen
Before hunters cut off its tusk, a male narwhal's head is left on the ice. Photo Copyright Paul Nicklen
Workers in Taiwan's Dong Gang seafood market process frozen shark fins. Photo Copyright Paul Hilton
Off the west coast of Iceland, whalers load a dead whale onto a fishing boat. Photo Copyright Adam Butler
During a drive hunt, residents of the Faroe Islands kill pilot whales that have been pushed into a harbor. Photo Copyright Benjamin Rasmussen