A 2022 review of more than twenty thousand studies. Juliette Jacque-mot et al., “Ocean Conservation Boosts Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation,” One Earth 5, no. 10 (2022): 1126–38, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.09.002.

Since 2001, more than a dozen. “Minerals: Polymetallic Nodules,” International Seabed Authority, https://www.isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts/polymetallic-nodules/.

Biological surveys of the CCZ. Muriel Rabone et al., “How Many Metazoan Species Live in the World’s Largest Mineral Exploration Region?” Current Biology 33, no. 12 (2023): 2383–96, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.052.

study modelling the impacts of noise. Rob Williams et al., “Noise from Deep-Sea Mining May Span Vast Ocean Areas,” Science 377, no. 6602 (2022): 157–58, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo2804.

vent mines could be interspersed. Daniel C. Dunn et al., “A Strategy for the Conservation of Biodiversity on Mid-Ocean Ridges from Deep-Sea Mining,” Science Advances 4, no. 7 (2018): eaar4313, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar4313.

A full survey of all the snails. Elin A. Thomas et al., “A Global Red List for Hydrothermal Vent Molluscs,” Frontiers in Marine Science 8 (2021): 713022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.713022.

In the Mediterranean, 0.06 per cent. Joachim Claudet et al., “Under-protected Marine Protected Areas in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot,” One Earth 2, no. 4 (2020): 380–84, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.03.008.

Across the northeast Atlantic. Julia Roessger et al., “Turning the Tide on Protection Illusions: The Underprotected MPAs of the ‘OSPAR Regional Sea Convention,’” Marine Policy 142 (2022): 105109, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105109.

European protected areas are home. Manuel Dureuil et al., “Elevated Trawling inside Protected Areas Undermines Conservation Outcomes in a Global Fishing Hot Spot,” Science 362, no. 6421 (2018): 1403–7, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau0561.

almost all the protected areas are being legally dredged and bottom-trawled. Karen McVeigh, “Fishing Industry Still ‘Bulldozing’ Seabed in 90% of UK Marine Protected Areas,” Guardian (UK), May 31, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/31/fishing-industry-still-bulldozing-seabed-in-90-of-uk-marine-protected-areas.

Bill Ballantine wrote. Mark J. Costello and Bill Ballantine, “Biodiversity Conservation Should Focus on No-Take Marine Reserves,” Science and Society 30, no. 9 (2015): 507–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.011.

CHAPTER 8

The latest estimates suggest kelp forests. Aaron M. Eger et al., “The Value of Ecosystem Services in Global Marine Kelp Forests,” Nature Communications 14 (2023): 1894, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37385-0.

In that one heatwave. Thomas Wernberg et al., “Climate-Driven Regime Shift of a Temperate Marine Ecosystem,” Science 353, no. 6295 (2016): 169–72, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad8745.

successful campaign led to a ban. Sussex Kelp Recovery Project, https://sussexkelp.org.uk/.

Spiky armadas marched. Karen Filbee-Dexter and Robert E. Scheibling, “Sea Urchin Barrens as Alternative Stable States of Collapsed Kelp Ecosystems,” Marine Ecology Progress Series 495 (2014): 1–25, https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10573.

otters’ influence on eelgrass. Brent B. Hughes et al., “Recovery of a Top Predator Mediates Negative Eutrophic Effects on Seagrass,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 38 (2013): 15313–18, https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1302805110.

To the north, off British Columbia. Erin Foster et al., “Physical Disturbance by Recovering Sea Otter Populations Increases Eelgrass Genetic Diversity,” Science 374, no. 6565 (2021): 333–36, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf2343.

study off the coast of Hokkaido. Akira Watanuki et al., “Restoration of Kelp Beds on an Urchin Barren: Removal of Sea Urchins by Citizen Divers in Southwestern Hokkaido,” Bulletin of Fisheries Research Agency 32 (2010): 83–87, http://www.fra.affrc.go.jp/bulletin/bull/bull32/83-87.pdf.

study of two of Aotearoa’s no-take zones. Nick T. Shears and Russell C. Babcock, “Marine Reserves Demonstrate Top-Down Control of Community Structure on Temperate Reefs,” Oecologia 132 (2002): 131–42, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-002-0920-x.

one group of scientists is suggesting. Peter D. Roopnarine et al., “Impact of the Extinct Megaherbivore Steller’s Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) on Kelp Forest Resilience,” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10 (2022): 983558, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.983558.

Subsequent analysis confirmed. Armineh Barkhordarian et al., “Recent Marine Heatwaves in the North Pacific Warming Pool Can Be Attributed to Rising Atmospheric Levels of Greenhouse Gases,” Communications Earth and Environment 3 (2022): 131, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00461-2.

At the centre of this disaster is the Amazon Basin. Brian E. Lapointe et al., “Nutrient Content and Stoichiometry of Pelagic Sargassum Reflects Increasing Nitrogen Availability in the Atlantic Basin,” Nature Communications 12 (2021): 3060, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23135-7.

programme to actively replant. Robert J. Orth et al., “Restoration of Seagrass Habitat Leads to Rapid Recovery of Coastal Ecosystem Services,” Science Advances 6, no. 41 (2020): eabc6434, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc6434.

seagrass meadows likely store. James W. Fourqurean et al., “Seagrass Ecosystems as a Globally Significant Carbon Stock,” Nature Geoscience 5 (2012): 505–9, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1477.

2022 study projecting the future of seagrass. Christina A. Buelow et al., “Ambitious Global Targets for Mangrove and Seagrass Recovery,” Current Biology 32, no. 7 (2022): 1641–49, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.013.

1 per cent of these semiaquatic tropical forests. Liza Goldberg et al., “Global Declines in Human-Driven Mangrove Loss,” Global Change Biology 26 (2020): 5844–55, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15275.

mangrove forests lock up. Daniel R. Richards et al., “Quantifying Net Loss of Global Mangrove Carbon Stocks from 20 Years of Land Cover Change,” Nature Communications 11 (2020): 4260, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18118-z.

Operation Crayweed was born. Operation Crayweed: Restoring Sydney’s Underwater Forests, http://www.operationcrayweed.com/.

CHAPTER 9

Within six months, many coral colonies. Melanie D. Mcfield, “Coral Response during and after Mass Bleaching in Belize,” Bulletin of Marine Science 64, no. 1 (1999): 155–72.

Reefs are central to the lives. Amy Sing Wong et al., “An Assessment of People Living by Coral Reefs over Space and Time,” Global Change Biology 28, no. 23 (2022): 7139–53, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16391.

There are still coral reefs in Belize. Catherine Alves et al., “Twenty Years of Change in Benthic Communities across the Belizean Barrier Reef,” PLoS One 17, no. 1 (2022): e0249155, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249155.

Across the region, many coral reefs. Jeremy Jackson et al. (eds.), Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970–2012 (Gland, Switzerland: Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, IUCN, 2014).

In 1998, mass bleaching. The 8 per cent figure comes from a forty-year data set of underwater surveys on reefs, consisting of more than two million observations from over twelve thousand sites in seventy-three reef-bearing countries around the world. See David Souter et al. (eds.), Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020 Report (n.p.: Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and International Coral Reef Initiative, 2020), https://doi.org/10.59387/WOTJ9184.

14 per cent of stony corals worldwide were killed. This is likely an underestimate because the most damaged reefs, with the lowest coral cover, are not always the ones people choose to survey. Another study estimates that fully half of the world’s corals have died since 1950, although those figures are contentious among some experts, because they rely on a few early data points of coral cover that may not be as accurate or comparable to later surveys. See Tyler D. Eddy et al., “Global Decline in Capacity of Coral Reefs to Provide Ecosystem Services,” One Earth 4, no. 9 (2021): 1278–85, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.08.016.

This century, coral cover. Sterling B. Tebbett et al., “Benthic Composition Changes on Coral Reefs at Global Scales,” Nature Ecology and Evolution 7 (2023): 71–81, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01937-2.

Heat-stressed corals are more vulnerable. So far, scientists know of forty coral diseases that affect two hundred species across the world’s tropical reefs, but they still understand little about what causes them, how they’re transmitted, and what, if anything, can be done to protect reefs and help sick corals recover. See Juliano Morais et al., “A Global Synthesis of the Current Knowledge on the Taxonomic and Geographic Distribution of Major Coral Diseases,” Environmental Advances 8 (2022): 100231, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2022.1002312.

Warming seas are losing oxygen. Ariel K. Pezner et al., “Increasing Hypoxia on Global Coral Reefs under Ocean Warming,” Nature Climate Change 13 (2023): 403–9, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01619-2.

Mass coral bleaching kills corals. Terry P. Hughes et al., “Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Mass Bleaching of Corals in the Anthropocene,” Science 359, no. 6371 (2018): 80–83, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan8048.

scientists in Australia have built. Sophie G. Dove et al., “Ocean Warming and Acidification Uncouple Calcification from Calcifier Biomass Which Accelerates Coral Reef Decline,” Communications Earth and Environment 1 (2020): 55, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00054-x.

It could be as soon as 2030. Kay L. Davis et al., “Global Coral Reef Ecosystems Exhibit Declining Calcification and Increasing Primary Productivity,” Communications Earth and Environment 2 (2021): 105, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00168-w.

Surveys in 2022 recorded. AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program, Annual Summary Report of Coral Reef Condition 2020/2021 (n.p.: Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2021), https://www.aims.gov.au/reef-monitoring/gbr-condition-summary-2020-2021.

seven years later … there was little to no coral bleaching. Liam Lachs et al., “Emergent Increase in Coral Thermal Tolerance Reduces Mass Bleaching under Climate Change,” Nature Communications 14 (2023): 4939, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40601-6.

On reefs in Panama, Pocillopora. Ana M. Palacio-Castro et al., “Increased Dominance of Heat-Tolerant Symbionts Creates Resilient Coral Reefs in Near-Term Ocean Warming,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120, no. 8 (2023): e2202388120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202388120.

Globally, since the 1990s. Shannon Sully et al., “A Global Analysis of Coral Bleaching over the Past Two Decades,” Nature Communications 10 (2019): 1264, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09238-2.

Twenty years’ worth of underwater surveys. Shannon Sully et al., “Present and Future Bright and Dark Spots for Coral Reefs through Climate Change,” Global Change Biology 28, no. 15 (2022): 4509–22, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16083.

Bright spots are dotted. Ibid.

Globally, around 80 per cent. Richard L. Pyle and Joshua M. Copus, “Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems: Introduction and Overview,” in Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems, ed. Yossi Loya et al., Coral Reefs of the World 12 (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019), 3–27, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92735-0_1.

every hour a rebreather diver. Hudson T. Pinheiro et al., “Deep Reef Fishes in the World’s Epicenter of Marine Biodiversity,” Coral Reefs 38 (2019): 985–95, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-019-01825-5.