Researchers from the University of Sheffield, England, have stated that up to 25% of well-known species of marine animals are currently in danger of extinction. They claim that this is about the same number as land-based animals and plants. They say that the number of threatened species in the seas is increasing and academics don’t take the issue as seriously as those living on the land. According to scientists writing in Current Biology, pollution, overfishing and climate change are all threatening our oceans. The authors state that academics must take marine life’s threat more seriously. The University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Species is the study leader. He said that while there was a common assumption that marine life would be protected from overfishing and pollution, the reality is that only three quarters of the species have been evaluated and compared to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria. Dr. Webb said: “When you focus on the groups of animals or plants that are most well-known, and where estimations of extinction risk can be made with the greatest reliability, the distinction between marine and nonmarine species disappears.” He added, “In these groups, around one in four to five species are at an increased risk of extinction regardless of whether they are on land or on the sea.” “We should be more concerned with marine species,” the Royal Society funded the study. It is part of an overall study that challenges the belief that marine life differs fundamentally from terrestrial life. Therefore, it needs to be studied separately. The oceans make up more than three quarters of the planet’s surface. These oceans are alive with life. Webb stated that while there may be some differences in their behavior, it is important to test assumptions in order to make informed decisions regarding managing the marine environment. The summer of was the warmest recorded. Numerous studies show that climate change has already caused havoc to marine life. The species is being seriously affected by coral bleaching, as seen in the Great Barrier Reef. Most people think of Earth’s life at risk of dying. They picture the polar bears or other land-based animals, not the millions of aquatic creatures and plants below oceans. We need to shift our perceptions of the planet’s life. Webb and his colleagues hope that their research will convince scientists around the world to take marine life seriously, especially when it comes to endangered species. Research from the University of California Santa Barbara found that marine life is under the same threat as terrestrial life. The way that we plunder the oceans by setting up giant-scale shrimp farms and using satellite-guided sea-fishing to guide it, as well as seafloor mining, threatens its biodiversity in the same manner many other land species and plants have gone extinct. Scientists warned that while the level of ocean life extinction is only a small fraction of what has happened on land in the last five centuries, it is rapidly changing. Douglas McCauley, a scientist from the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, UC Santa Barbara, stated that the same trends which led to the decline of wildlife populations in land are now starting to happen in the oceans.
