About 93 percent of ocean fish is being harvested at above the level of sustainability or their being replaced by new stocks. In 2015, 33 percent of marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60 percent were maximally sustainably fished, with just 7 percent harvested at levels lower than what can be sustainably fished. Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, 300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are dumped annually into the world’s waters, and fertilizers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 ocean ‘dead zones,’ totaling more than 245,000 km2 (591-595)—a combined area greater than that of the United Kingdom.

Lopez, T. (2019, May 22). Extinction. Manila Standard, pp. A4, A5.