The Prince of Wales has described the challenge of protecting the world's oceans as "like none that we have ever faced before."
Meanwhile there’s been a glimmer of hope at the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) which took place earlier this month in Nice, France, with pushing for ratification of the High Seas Treaty at the top of the agenda.
Speaking before the conference at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco, Prince William said life on the ocean floor was diminishing before our eyes.
Rising temperatures, pollution and overfishing are causing huge damage to the world's oceans and the communities that rely on them.
The High Seas Treaty would allow nations to establish marine protected areas in international waters, which cover nearly two-thirds of the ocean and are largely ungoverned.
The treaty will only come into force once 60 countries ratify it. Before the conference only 27 out of the 60 states needed to bring it into force had ratified the treaty. Over a few days that figure jumped to 50, and a dozen more agreed to ratify by the end of the year. The UK has said it would begin the process before 2026.
The ocean generates 50% of the oxygen we breathe, absorbs around 30% of carbon dioxide emissions and captures more than 90% of the excess heat caused by those emissions. Without a healthy ocean, many experts fear that climate goals will be impossible to reach.
