Why worry about the oceans which are so vast and therefore seem impossible to harm? The answer is very simple. Without the oceans our planet would be as barren and inhospitable as Mars.
Life on Earth began in the oceans more than 3000 million years ago and was nurtured there for more than 1000 million years before it began to colonise the land. When life did come ashore, it brought the oceans with it. Water makes up approximately 70 per cent of any living being. Now, however, the waters of the earth are under threat from human activity.
UNESCO proclaimed 1998 as the International Year of the Ocean. Its aim was to "obtain commitments from governments to take action, provide adequate resources and give priority to the oceans and coastal areas which they deserve". One might have expected stories, comment and analysis about the threats facing the oceans from a combination of reckless exploitation and human indifference.
As we enter the 11th month of 1998, I have yet to see any substantial coverage on the oceans which surround this island or sustain life globally apart from reports in The Irish Times during the Ospar convention on marine pollution which took place in Portugal last July.
The oceans contain not only most of the planet's water but also most of the diverse range of living things. About 300,000 marine species have been identified, but it is commonly held by marine scientists that there is at least double that amount. Some scientists believe the ocean floor alone may contain up to 10 million species.
The tragedy now is that much of this marine life may be destroyed long before it is ever identified. The pressure on the oceans comes from industrial pollution, mounting population pressures along coastal zones and fishing methods which are akin to strip mining.
There are about 35 major seas in the world. Seven of these - the Baltic, Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, Bering, Yellow and South China seas - have been seriously damaged in recent decades. In a single year, the Yellow River can dump tonnes of cadmium, mercury, lead, zinc, arsenic and chromium into the South China Sea along with 21,000 tonnes of oil.
Two marine ecosystems are particularly vital for a vibrant and heal thy marine environment. These are the coral reefs and mangrove forests.
Both have been under attack for decades and are in a precarious state. The 600,000 square miles of coral reefs in the planet's tropical and subtropical seas are the marine equivalent of the rain forests.
Over-fishing is leaving the oceans barren. Many people felt they were so vast and the variety and supply of fish so abundant that there would always be vast quantities of fish in the sea. We are now learning how false those assumptions were.
A sizeable portion of the annual catch now consists of immature fish which means breeding stock is being decimated. Global fish catches peaked in 1989. They have been falling ever since despite improved gear, tracking and snaring technology and the fact that more species at different depths in the ocean are being targeted.
Daniel Pauly, author of a new study on global fishing trends, predicts that "if things go unchecked, we might end up with a marine junkyard dominated by plankton".
Many of the super-trawlers responsible for the slaughter of creatures of the oceans are heavily subsidised by governments. This has skewed the economics of global fishing to a remarkable degree. It costs approximately $124 billion annually to catch $70 billion worth of fish. The huge shortfall is bridged by governments. Because of subsidies, fishing can be a lucrative business for large-scale operators.
As if all the above were not enough, humans are also polluting the oceans with industrial waste including heavy metals, organochlorines (such as DDT and PCBs), nuclear waste and agricultural effluent. Thirty to 50 million metric tonnes of untreated or partially treated sewage are released into the Mediterranean each year. In the Third World it is much worse.
There is increasing evidence that chemical pollution poses a serious threat to the survival of whales and dolphins. The World Wide Fund for Nature has stated that "some of the most exotic sea creatures around Irish and British coasts, and some hundreds of species in total, are threatened by large-scale dumping of industrial chemicals, heavy metals and oil pollution".
The ubiquitous plastic bag also causes damage and great suffering to marine life. A plastic bag bobbing up in the ocean looks like a jellyfish to a turtle. Once consumed, the plastic blocks the turtle's intestine and causes a slow, painful death.
If the oceans become toxic, our food and our bodies will also become toxic. We need to move quickly and comprehensively. Only 20 of the 177 countries which have coastlines have implemented effective coastal management plans.
It is time to enforce rigorously the Oslo Convention on dumping waste and toxic substances at sea which was ratified as far back as 1972. This was followed two years later by the Paris convention on dumping from land sources, including radioactive waste. Both were merged to form Ospar in 1992. Its convention requires contracting parties to take all possible steps to prevent and eliminate pollution.
The Ospar ministerial statement which emanated in July adopted strong measures, including a commitment to reduce radioactive waste to as close to zero as is technically feasible by 2020. Greenpeace saw it as the death knell for the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
Others including Labour Party spokesman Emmet Stagg felt the clause "as is technically feasible" is a classic let-off strategy for British Nuclear Fuels.
More political pressure is needed to persuade companies to abandon the production of polluting chemicals and move instead towards clean production techniques which would end the dumping of toxic substances into the ocean. However, Bruce Mc Kay, a researcher for Sea Web, says: "Change will not come easily. Much of humanity has developed a profound dependency on nitrogen-based fertilisers, fossil fuels, pesticides, and a host of other environmentally damaging goods and services."
The provisions of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was negotiated in the early 1980s and came into force in 1994, need to be enforced more rigorously. Given the pressure on the oceans from fishing, oil and gas exploration and dumping, the traditional notion of "freedom of the sea" will have to be abandoned. There is a pressing need for more appropriate management policies for the high seas.
This is an edited version of an article from the latest issue of Doctrine & Life. Sean McDonagh SCC is chairman of Voice environmental group