World Oceans Day 2025: Crucial For Climate, Food Security, UN Urges Action To Protect 'What Sustains Us'

World Oceans Day is a United Nations (UN) observance day with roots in the 1992 Earth Summit where the idea was first introduced. This day is observed to commemorate the beautiful and bountiful oceans of the world that contain natural resources and biodiversity which sustain the world. This day aims to highlight the importance of oceans for human civilisation. It also aims to spread awareness regarding the threats faced by oceans along with conservation efforts being made for its protection and restoration.

World Oceans Day: Theme for 2025

The theme for this year is "Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us" which highlights the breathtaking nature of the ocean and humanity’s shared responsibility to protect it. This theme aims to highlight the importance and wonder of oceans that inspires people’s curiosity, exploration, scientific knowledge and innovation.

Importance of Oceans

Over 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans making them essential in the lives of all creatures on Earth. Oceans are the heart of this planet as they pump oxygen, nutrients, water and weather, hence playing a key role in the world’s ecosystems. This constant circulation directly and indirectly provides food and water to the entire human civilisation while also forming the backbone of world economies. Oceans help the world in the following ways:

Oceans provide half of Earth’s oxygen through its top layer which is loaded with plankton made up of tiny algae, bacteria, plants and other living things that use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Oceans provide food security through healthy food for people across the world as more than 3 billion depend on fish and other ocean species for food income. Seafood provides people with healthy protein rich food. Oceans are a major driving force behind the global water cycle that virtually sustains the planet’s plants and animals. This plays a major role in maintaining various ecosystems that are vital for sustainable biodiversity necessary for food security around the world.

These large water bodies help regulate weather by serving as a giant pump that uses its currents to move warm water and cause precipitation in the ocean surface from the tropics toward the poles while in its depth it moves cold water from the poles back toward the equator. Most rainfall around the world originates from oceans as in warmer regions of the ocean, the sun evaporates ocean water which is then carried by wind in the form of clouds and storms across the planet.

Oceans have always been major allies against climate change and they help regulate earth’s temperature and purify its atmosphere by absorbing heat and carbon dioxide (CO2). Humans rapidly began releasing greenhouse gases as far back as the industrial revolution which has caused oceans to absorb 90 per cent of excess heat in the atmosphere. Without this absorption, global warming would have been in a worse state and Earth’s air temperature would rise even faster. The absorbed CO2 gets deposited deep beneath the ocean and can remain there for thousands of years. Even coastal habitats like mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes are excellent at storing carbon. These “blue carbon” habitats can even hold five times more carbon per acre than tropical forests which displays how simply maintaining and protecting such coastal habitats can help combat global warming.

Ocean habitats are not only good for storing carbon but also protect coastal communities from storms. Reefs and dunes along with mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes, play a vital role in protecting various coastal communities around the world from climate charged storms, erosion and rise in sea level. Simply maintaining and protecting these habitats can help protect coastal communities and their living space, maintain biodiversity of oceans for food health and fisheries, and protect tourism through preserving the beauties of these habitats.

Conservation Efforts Towards Protecting and Restoring Oceans

In Mauritius, the Marine Megafauna Conservation Organisation (MMCO) has made great efforts for ocean conservation. In 2021, with support from the Small Grants Program (SGP), they launched a project to protect marine biodiversity in Mauritius through education, scientific research, community education and policy recommendations. It focused on five species of sharks, turtles and whales threatened by plastic pollution, overfishing, illegal harvesting, habitat loss, accidental catches, collisions with ships and uncontrolled tourism. The project used various activities such as media campaigns, lectures and the distribution of educational materials to make key achievements of completing over 150 days of field research and reaching out to more than 100,000 people to spread awareness regarding ocean sustainability and conservation. Its scientific reports have also played a key role in shaping national policies of Mauritius regarding conservation and sustainability practices.

In the Palau archipelago, a non-profit organisation called The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is collaborating with the Palau’s government to develop a new tool that helps in mapping out the best locations for new aquaculture. TNC is investing in sustainable fisheries and aquaculture to help the country balance and maintain food sovereignty combined with healthy ecosystems and economic growth.

In 2024, TNC launched the Tuna Transparency Pledge, which aims for 100 per cent on the water monitoring across all industrial tuna fishing vessels in the supply chains or jurisdictions of signatories by 2027. The first of these signatories included the Federated States of Micronesia, Belize, Thai Union, Albertsons Companies and Walmart.

In 2004, a non-profit organisation called Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) launched the pioneering Whale Shark Campaign in Gujarat, India, to create awareness among coastal communities. Their efforts helped turn the fishermen from hunters to protectors of this species which led to a change in their perception and increased conservation action. These efforts have been built upon over the years which allowed WTI to formally launch the “Save the Whale Shark” Campaign along Kerala and Lakshadweep, in 2022. The campaign has been working closely with the fisheries departments and associations, it has even received support from VMware and VST Industries since 2023. This campaign has shown remarkable success in conservation efforts as more than 1,000 whale sharks have been rescued and released along the Indian coastline.

UN’s Stance Towards Ocean Sustainability and Conservation

Out of the UN's 17 Sustainability and Development Goals, Goal 14 is related to conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources. Afterall, oceans contain 97 per cent of Earth’s water and provide key natural resources such as food, medicines, biofuels and other products vital for economic prosperity and food security globally. Despite such benefits, marine pollution is reaching extreme levels, with over 17 million metric tons of garbage clogging the oceans based on figures in 2021 which are expected to double or triple by 2040.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals Report of 2023 highlights how oceans are in a state of emergency due to increasing eutrophication, plastic pollution, ocean warming and acidification worsen its health. In addition to these problems, an alarming trend of overfishing still persists which has led to the depletion of over one third of global fish stocks. The report emphasizes that there has been some progress in expanding marine protected areas, combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, banning fishing subsidies and supporting small-scale fishers. However, such actions and efforts are neither fast enough nor have the necessary scale to meet the requirements of Goal 14. It is believed that swift and coordinated global action is vital to counter these trends and urgently turn the tide in protecting oceans by increasing funding for ocean science, intensifying conservation efforts, advancing nature- and ecosystem-based solutions and addressing the impacts and interconnections of human induced pressures.