But the ocean is in crisis.
Around the globe, human-made climate change is supercharging a devastating conga line of threats to the ocean — marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, changes in ocean circulation, and a marked downturn in the availability of essential nutrients and dissolved oxygen for all the living creatures that depend upon them.
Meanwhile, overfishing and the degradation of important marine habitat — through destructive fishing practices like industrial bottom trawling, long lining, and gill netting — is decimating fish communities and endangered creatures like green turtles, who are indiscriminately netted and killed as bycatch.
Offshore oil and gas drilling and the catastrophic seismic blasting that precedes them is endangering marine life, from the very largest creatures like whales, down to tiny zooplankton that form the bottom of the food chain. The expansion of this industry around the country is risking some of Australia's most iconic marine areas, like World Heritage listed Ningaloo Reef and the great sea Countries of the south in Victoria and Lutruwita/Tasmania.
Beyond these, waves of plastic rubbish, crown of thorns starfish, and inappropriate coastal development are all smashing the integrity of our saltwater ecosystems. The ocean is in crisis, so what can we do?