How Is KR 4.2 Tracking?
Our Oceans KR demands that we scale up efforts to end the devastation of our seas. At present, 8 percent of our oceans are under protection.
Our coastal oceans, home to aquatic meadows of carbon-absorbing marine vegetation, must be buffered from pollution and destructive fishing practices.
The deep ocean is layered with marine sediments, Earth’s single largest stockpile of stored carbon. The commercial fishing industry’s aggressive bottom trawling—dragging heavily weighted nets across the sea floor—releases carbon dioxide into the seawater. Much of this carbon ultimately goes into the atmosphere.
We need to end deep-sea trawling and to protect 30 percent of coastal oceans by 2030, and then 50 percent by 2050.
Data for KR 4.2 is sourced from Protected Planet, which updates its report on protected oceans monthly.
Though they have a long way to go to reach our 2030 and 2050 targets, ocean protection efforts have made significant advances since 2010: