Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Environment

Only 13 per cent of the world's oceans are considered a wilderness

By Chelsea Whyte

26 July 2018

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

The ocean is barely wild anymore. A map of the wilderness left in global waters shows that only 13 per cent of the ocean remains undisturbed by human activity.

Kendall Jones at The University of Queensland in Australia and his colleagues analysed the effects of 19 human stressors on the seas, which fall into broad categories: fishing, pollution, climate change, and shipping. Transporting vast quantities of goods across the ocean can disturb habitats and pollute the water, and also ferries invasive species throughout the seas. And pollution doesn’t just include physical contaminants – light pollution is included in the…

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