7 Things Absolutely Everyone Should Know About the Ocean

1. The Ocean Makes Our Planet Habitable
Our ocean couldn't be more important — it makes life on Earth possible.

Life evolved in the ocean and every terrestrial species found on the planet today evolved from ancient marine organisms. The vast majority of the oxygen in the atmosphere came from ocean-dwelling organisms as well. This accumulation made it possible for life to expand from the sea and thrive on land.

The ocean continues to act as the planet’s life support system, providing the necessary water and oxygen for life and stabilizing global temperatures.

2. The Ocean Controls the Weather and the Climate

The ocean has been protecting us from the worst impacts of climate change.

Climate change is fundamentally an ocean issue — you could think of it as ocean change. The dark blue ocean absorbs about 93% of the excess heat caused by climate change, protecting us from the worst impacts. Scientists have estimated that if the ocean wasn’t doing this job of absorbing almost all of the heat, the average surface temperature of the planet would be over 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). 

3. Humans are Entirely Dependent on a Healthy Ocean.

It doesn't matter who you are or where you live, we all rely on a healthy ocean.

The ocean provides food and livelihoods for billions of people across the globe, but you don’t have to live at the beach to reap the benefits of healthy seas. In fact, most resources the ocean provides humans are things we take for granted, like oxygen to breathe and water to drink and grow food with.

There are some other less-obvious ways we depend on the ocean as well. For example, certain medicines come from the ocean. Chemicals found on coral reefs have been found to help patients fight cancer and other diseases, including heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Simply being near the sea generally has a positive impact on human health, reducing stress and anxiety.

4. The Ocean Is Home to the Vast Majority of Animals Life

Life evolved in the ocean, and it's still where most of the animal life on Earth can be found.

While there are fewer marine plants than terrestrial ones, there are far more ocean-dwelling animals: 78% of all animal biomass lives in the marine environment. What’s more, scientists have estimated that 91% of the ocean’s species have yet to even be classified.

The great thing about having so much marine life is that it helps makes the ocean the planet's largest carbon sink. When marine life excretes waste or dies, the carbon in that organic matter sinks to the seafloor, where it is stored for centuries. This makes the ocean even more important for combating climate change than terrestrial forests.

5. Over 80% of the Ocean Remains Unexplored.

We still haven't visited over half of our planet — and it could hold some planet-saving secrets.

Although the ocean covers more than 70% of the planet’s surface and impacts the lives of every living thing on Earth, much of it remains unexplored. Research shows that over 80% of the ocean is yet to be mapped — or explored at all — by humans.

Humans have spent nearly 100 times as much money looking for life on other planets as we have on ocean exploration. However, the ocean may hold the answers to some of our greatest challenges.

By exploring our marine environments more thoroughly, we can better understand climate and weather changes, discover new disease-fighting medicines, find alternative energy and food sources, and inspire countless other innovations.

6. Our world is shaped by the ocean.

The ocean works at such an epic scale that it can be key to solving our greatest global challenges.

For millions of years, the ocean has shaped the terrestrial world in which we live. From carving mountains to forming new islands from the skeletons of corals, it works at an epic scale. It’s a fact that we should remember now more than ever — the ocean is the world’s biggest heat and carbon sink, making it key to solving climate change. 

Ocean ecosystems such as seagrass beds, salt marshes, coral reefs and mangroves can sequester carbon from the atmosphere at several times the rate of terrestrial forests. Billions of tons of CO2 are captured and safely stored by the ocean each year. 

7. There is only one ocean.

The ocean is our planet's life-support system, and we don't have a backup.

Although the ocean is divided into five regions — the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Oceans — it is actually one body of water that connects globally. Thus, what happens to the ocean in one location can ultimately have an impact anywhere else, whether it’s negative, like a toxic oil spill, or positive, like reducing pollution or the creation of a marine protected area that allows marine life to recover.

One last thing everyone should know: It’s the UN Ocean Decade.

The UN Ocean Decade is an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of the ocean and to prioritize ocean science, ocean protection and climate action.

Fore more on the importance of our ocean, view our Our Incredible Ocean — A Creative Toolkit for Raising Ocean Awareness.

These 7 things have been developed from the Ocean Literacy Principles.

Top photo by Thomas Horig; Photo art (top to bottom) by Aanish Peshave, Tim Helou, Huzefa Indorewala, Keronix Raze, Tim Helou, Hüseyin Sahin and Egzon Muliiqi.