One World One Ocean Campaign Highlights Need For Conservation

A new multi-year, multi-platform campaign hopes to raise awareness about the state of the world's oceans and focus on how they can be protected. The One World One Ocean campaign is an extended film, television and online campaign led by filmmaker Greg MacGillivray .

The campaign's principal science advisor, Dr. Sylvia Earle , said in a press release, "The worlds oceans are in trouble, but the good news is there is still time to save them. Our actions toward the ocean in the next 10 years will define the next 10,000."

Earle, who was nominated as one of 2011's Green Game Changers by HuffPost, has stressed the importance of healthy oceans in the past.

She wrote last year , "few people seem aware of the vital role the ocean has in maintaining a planet that works in our favor."

A report this summer from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean found that a mass extinction "unlike anything human history has ever seen" is imminent if "current actions contributing to a multifaceted degradation of the world's oceans aren't curbed."

In July, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration released its annual overfishing report . 16 percent of U.S. fish populations are overfished, and the number has been growing in recent years.

Fish in other countries may also be facing an uncertain future. A study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature earlier this year found that "more than 40 fish species in the Mediterranean could vanish in the next few years."

Governments could be contributing to the precarious place of the world's sea life populations. An Oceana report found that multi-billion dollar subsidies from the European Union "promote a European fishing fleet that is up to three times bigger than sustainable limits ."

Although the number of deaths has been reduced by 90 percent since 1990, a recent study found that 4,600 sea turtles are killed annually in U.S. fisheries.

For more information about the One World One Ocean campaign, visit their website , Twitter or Facebook page .

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