Our seas and oceans in particular are at the focus of climate change. They should actually belong to their inhabitants, but are exploited as if they belong to no one.

The high seas are in territorial no man’s land that is used as if it were everyone’s land.

Crazy how we exploit the oceans without really knowing them. Research is still far from having explored all that there is to discover in the depths.

With the help of digital technologies we are gradually learning more and more about the oceans of our planet. What do we find?

Often a product of our own

Alarming discoveries were made in the marine atlas. For example shipwrecks, which are ticking time bombs because they have tons of oil or fuel on board and the material of the containers decays. Or animals that die from our plastic garbage. It seems our research subject is drawing his last breaths.

The waves of the oceans are staggering in death!

In the European region, 88 percent of fish stocks are overfished. Particularly in the European Union, which often claims sustainability for itself at the political level, the oceans are under greater strain than anywhere else in the world.

Part of this sad balance is also the fact that about 40 percent of the fish catches are thrown into the waste as so-called useless “by-catch”. In the North Sea, about one million tons of it are thrown back into the sea every year, dying or already dead.

What other options do we have?

Of course, the idea of saving the world’s oceans by completely abandoning consumption is obvious. But before that day comes, there will be no more fish that can be saved.

More than half of the world’s fish stocks are considered to be fished to their limits. Around 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks are on the verge of extinction. Just the old fish, which are necessary for reproduction and survival, are the ones that are missing.

We have smart technologies

We can use these to restore the fish population. This requires political commitment and petitions for appropriate subsidies. The idea of the Plastik Bank is such an organization characterized by commitment.

The “Plastic Bank”

A bank that takes plastic. This is the short version of David Katz’ surprising idea. Discarded plastic is collected by people and they exchange the bottles, plastic containers and bags at the Plastic Bank. In return, they receive, for example, electricity for their mobile phones, Internet use or even cash. With this exchange, founder David Katz wants to raise awareness of the value of plastic. The delivered plastic is shredded, removed and recycled. For example to plastic threads for 3D printers. “Filament” is the name of the resulting material, but it is better known as “Social Plastic“.

If we help ourselves to the seas as if they belong to no one – why don’t we take responsibility as if they belong to each of us?

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