Nice – A new initiative to monitor the health of the world’s oceans was unveiled Sunday at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice. The Starfish barometer provides an annual snapshot of ocean conditions — from biodiversity loss and sea level rise to human impact and emerging solutions.

The Starfish barometer will be published each year on 8 June.

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This initiative, accessible on starfishbarometer.org, was presented at the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice.

The barometer is accompanied by a scientific article published in the journal State of the Planet, but was designed to reach citizens with serious data that is easy to understand.

Its symbol wasn’t chosen at random, explains Pierre Bahurel, director of Mercator Ocean.

“With a five-armed starfish, we illustrate that to tackle the topic of the ocean, we can’t rely on just one aspect,” he told RFI’s Pauline Gleize.

“That means we will describe the state of the ocean (branch one), but we will also examine human pressures on the ocean (branch two) and the harmful consequences this can create (branch three). We will also look at positive protection actions and the opportunities that can arise from them (branch five),” explains Bahurel.

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Ocean health

It’s a health check of the ocean — and it’s not in good shape.

Around 1,677 marine species are at risk of extinction, with one-third of them being shark species.

Since 1901, sea levels have risen by 23 centimetres, and pressures are increasing: ever more CO2 emissions, and nearly 38 percent of fish catches come from unsustainable fishing.

On a more economical aspect, the barometer shows that sales of marine-derived pharmaceuticals have increased by 7.5 percent over five years.

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But Starfish is not just an environmental barometer.

“The method involved bringing together scientists from different fields — economists, physicists, oceanographers, biologists. And the perspective was truly about examining the relationship between humans and the ocean — or rather, between humanity and the ocean,” emphasizes Bahurel.

The number of migrants who died at sea was also recorded: 9,002 last year, a ten-year high.

Starfish will be published every year on 8 June.

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