A recent study shows that life in the earth's oceans is in imminent risk of extinction due mostly to climate change and over-fishing. The collapse of natural coral reefs and increase of so-called low oxygen 'dead zones' are not being reversed quickly enough to avoid disaster, according to the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO). The prospect of losing marine species and some entire marine coral reef ecosystems is looking likely within a generation, say some ocean experts, if immediate action is not taken.

The world's seas and fish within them, account for the main protein source for twenty per cent of the world's population also helping to cycle oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, which coincidentally happens to be the main greenhouse gas from general human activities. Our seas face a 'deadly' combination of high ocean temperatures, high acidification and low oxygen content, sometimes referred to as anoxia. These factors have previously contributed to mass extinctions whilst over-fishing is estimated to account for 60% of the known extinction of Marine Fishes.