The poor state of our oceans is the result of human activities. Therefore, marine protection has primarily aimed to create marine areas so far, in which humans are no longer allowed to use the sea at all or to a limited extent only. The hope is to create niches or refuges for marine communities around the world, in which they can live and reproduce undisturbed by humans, so that the ocean's biodiversity is preserved and overfished stocks can recover in protected areas.
The number of designated marine protected areas has steadily increased in recent years. Nevertheless, only 2.6 per cent of the sea area is effectively protected from overfishing. This small proportion is due to the fact that marine protected areas have very different protection standards. Sometimes, fishing or sand and gravel extraction is even permitted.
Marine pollution must be avoided as a matter of principle, healthy natural areas must be protected and destroyed ecosystems must be restored. Fishing must be limited to a level that is tolerable for nature. However, this requires that all fished stocks are monitored and that policy makers follow scientific recommendations when allocating fishing quotas. At the same time, it must be ensured that the coastal population can continue to live from the sea. These few examples show: Marine conservation is a task for society as a whole, which is by no means getting any easier, as our demands on the sea are constantly growing.
