Warming trends rise in large ocean areas: study

Reuters: Warming trends in a third of the world's large ocean regions are two to four times greater than previously reported averages, increasing the risk to marine life and fisheries, a U.N.-backed environmental study said. Overfishing, coastal pollution and degradation of water quality were common in all 64 large marine ecosystems studied by scientists who contributed to the U.N. Environmental Program report presented at an international conference on oceans, coasts and islands in Vietnam this week.

"These marine ecosystems are under great stress and that stress is increasing because of climate change, by global warming," co-author Ken Sherman of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an interview. "We really need to have policy makers and donors recognize that we need to fund efforts to reduce the stress," Sherman said….

Map of the Pacific Ocean, CIA World Factbook, Wikimedia Commons