A paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts states: “the deep oceans cover over two-thirds of the surface of the world, and yet more is known about the shape of the surface of the moon than is known about that of the bottom of the ocean”. This refers specifically to the scant amount of data available on the topography of the sea floor and predates both the first crewed descent to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench (), and the first moon landing ().

Most emissions are produced by the oil and gas and petrochemical industries in the “upstream” part of the lifecycle. Mechanical recycling reduces cradle-to-grave emissions by at least to per cent compared to producing polymers from fossil fuels by avoiding upstream emissions. While the emissions reduction opportunities from recycling are significant, they can only be part of the solution towards a net zero plastics economy.

Despite being ‘simply’ trade agreements, the CPTTP and the USMCA have started to drive advances in ocean sustainability. Member nations are required to use science-based management systems to prevent overfishing and overcapacity. They must implement port controls to combat illegal fishing and prohibit the provision of subsidies for vessels engaged in illegal fishing or that further threaten overfished stocks.

Global Fishing Watch is now applying the same method to monitor dark fleets globally. Around the world, hundreds of thousands of large and medium-sized fishing vessels are placing their hooks and nets without broadcasting their location, either to avoid regulations or, more often than not, because they are not required to do so. By using years of satellite imagery collected from the European Space Agency, it is now possible to count and identify these dark fleets. Further, by assessing where these vessels are detected, we can model which are likely to be fishing – and, more importantly, which may be fishing illegally.

In , the highly-publicised collapse of a major Canadian cod stock focused global attention on the urgent need to stop overfishing – and better manage our fisheries. Similar declines in fish stocks have played out across major fisheries globally in the last half-century where abundance data is available: in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa and the United States, and on the high seas, leading to the implementation of catch and effort restrictions.