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EspañolWorld Oceans Day 2025 is coming up on June 8. This annual event brings to the fore issues concerning our oceans — the vast part of the earth that makes up 97% of the planet’s water and covers 71% of its surface.
With this year’s theme, “Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us,” the UN urges communities, governments, and other stakeholders to grasp the magnitude of the ocean’s wonders and how to interact with it in a way that sustains its life-giving gifts.
Oceans sustain life — they produce over half of the world’s oxygen and trap carbon dioxide 50 times more than our atmosphere does. Whether we live inland or along the coast, we owe much of the air we breathe to ocean waters. And we all know its benefits don’t end there.
How Oceans Sustain the Planet and Its People
Oceans play a significant role in the way we live on Earth. Here are some of the ways they impact our lives:
Climate Regulation
Oceans help regulate our climate. They transfer heat from the equator to the poles. This tempers our weather, regulates its patterns, and influences rainfall and droughts in the process.
By trapping one-third of CO2, it helps us breathe and live. However, we need to curb the carbon we produce to avoid adverse effects on climate regulation. If this issue remains unaddressed, we will experience extreme weather patterns or climate change — something we’re already seeing worldwide because of greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustaining Biodiversity
The ocean is home to 80% of all biodiversity on Earth, including some 250,000 marine flora and fauna species and microorganisms. There are so many life forms in saltwater. Sadly, marine life is disappearing faster compared to land-based organisms.
Data from the IUCN reveals that more than 1,550 out of 17,903 marine species and plants are in danger of extinction. This includes the large marine mammal dugong and abalone shellfish species. They face threats from harmful human activities like poaching and overfishing. Ignoring the problem could affect the ocean’s ability to support life.
Food Source
We derive 15% of our diet’s animal protein from the ocean. Beyond seafood, oceans provide a vast number of marine-derived sustenance, like seaweed, fish gelatin, and fish oil. These are used in high-protein food products like soy milk and peanut butter.
To continue to enjoy these ocean edibles, we need to seriously reconsider how we view our bodies of water. The sea is not an inexhaustible food source. Overfishing, accidentally catching fish in nets and fishing gear, plastic pollution, etc., are causing them to diminish quickly.
Transportation and Logistics
Global trade is also highly dependent on marine transportation. Over two-thirds of our economy relies on the oceans to transport goods. In the US alone, 76% of trade involves marine transportation directly and indirectly.
From manufacturing to e-commerce, oceans enable logistics to flow, giving people and businesses access to the things they need — from bulk produce and livestock to petroleum products, machinery, and raw materials.
Source of Livelihood
Nearly half of the world’s population relies on oceans for their livelihood. This includes the marine fisheries industry that generates over 57 million jobs worldwide.
The shipping and logistics industry and other marine-dependent businesses like seafood manufacturing, food and beverage, salt-making, etc., provide over 3 billion individuals with a means to support themselves and their families.
Threats Facing Our Oceans Today
Our ocean ecosystems are in danger. If these issues aren’t fixed, they could seriously affect our lifestyles. We must sustain what sustains us or face consequences within the span of a few short decades.
Unregulated Fishing
Issues surrounding overfishing are more complex than they seem. They involve economic challenges and deeply ingrained culinary practices. Even criminal activities and poaching networks associated with the international drug trade are part of the problem.
The continued decline of marine life due to unregulated human activities demands urgent action. Failing to act promptly will reduce marine biodiversity. This will impact our food sources, nutritional needs, and sustenance.
Rising Ocean Temperatures
Several catastrophic events have taken place due to rising ocean temperatures.
Water temperatures are climbing from greenhouse gases’ excess heat. This makes water expand. Along with melting glaciers, higher ocean temperatures lead to rising water levels. This effect is already around us. It’s evident in the massive floods, changing shorelines, lost animal habitats, and public infrastructure damage we’re experiencing.
As ocean temperatures rise to up to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, species like whale sharks, which thrive in mild water temperatures, get stressed and die. The heat level also affects the health of fish, seabirds, and coral reefs.
Coral reefs are forced to expel algae. This causes coral reef bleaching, death, and sedimentation.
Water Pollution and Ocean Acidification
Multiple forms of destruction can stress and harm marine life, threatening their safety and in turn ours. Industries, microplastics, and boat traffic create toxic chemicals.
Breathing and breeding become more difficult. The air’s carbon dioxide goes into the ocean. The natural balance gets thrown off when the water turns acidic. This affects the development of many sea creatures like shellfish and mollusks. It also impacts the marine ecosystem, affecting other species’ health as well.
Protecting Marine Corridors in Nicaragua
The survival of marine life greatly depends on our oceans. This is why Paso Pacifico has been carrying out initiatives to protect marine wildlife habitats with the help of volunteers, partner communities, and donors.
Officially defined by One Earth as the areas beneath and above the oceans that serve as migration routes for fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, these areas promote biodiversity by allowing them to move, feed, and spawn.
We have been implementing our marine monitoring program across La Flor Wildlife Refuge. It is a 20,000-acre marine area on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast. Together with other organizations, we have implemented conservation activities to curb destructive fishing and protect different species, including humpback whales and hawksbill sea turtles.
We also partner with local communities to protect nesting beaches in the area.
Safeguarding Fish Population, Sustaining Livelihood
Paso Pacifico’s collaboration with organizations like Oceans5, PRETOMA, and Fauna and Flora International promotes aquaculture and sustainable fishing so that fish, sea turtles, and other marine animals can breed in safe environments, without getting caught by fishing vessels before recovery breeding can take place.
The truth is that exploitative fishing could lead to marine animal extinction, severely reducing the populations of fish, sharks, rays, chimera, etc. If we ignore the problem, there may be no more fish to catch by 2048. Food security is at stake, and it is our responsibility to ensure that future generations will have access to marine food sources and the wonders of the ocean.
How You Can Help
World Ocean Day 2025 puts the spotlight on the value of oceans and why we need to honor them as an irreplaceable resource that sustains life.
Paso Pacifico supports this endeavor. We continue to develop and implement science-based solutions in monitoring and safeguarding the Pacific slope marine corridors and wildlife.
Ocean conservation on World Ocean Day should concern us all because it affects everyone. Disruptions have far-reaching effects that influence the economy, food security, tourism, recreation, and our climate.
Help us by volunteering, involving your business, or donating so we can continue our conservation and education programs. The time to act is now.