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BBC: What is killing killer whales?

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30 Aug 2011 - Killer whales, the ocean's fiercest predators, are easily recognisable by their black and white markings.

But their future seems less clearly defined.

Marine experts are concerned about an invisible threat to the animals that has been building in our seas since World War II.

That was when industries began extensively using chemical flame retardants, such as PCBs.

More.

MULTIPLE OCEAN STRESSES THREATEN "GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT" MARINE EXTINCTION

workshop- A high-level international workshop convened by IPSO met at the University of Oxford earlier this year. It was the first inter-disciplinary international meeting of marine scientists of its kind and was designed to consider the cumulative impact of multiple stressors on the ocean, including warming, acidification, and overfishing.

The 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries produced a grave assessment of current threats - and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues: that the world's ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.

Delegates called for urgent and unequivocal action to halt further declines in ocean health.

For full details relating to the report summary on major ocean impacts and stressors, released June 20th 2011, please click here

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) was established by scientists with the aim of saving the Earth and all life on it.

Every sea and ocean on our planet is part of one, global Ocean. This Ocean is like the earth's circulatory system: it performs numerous vital functions which make the planet habitable and we cannot survive without it. Currently, the Ocean is in a critical state of health. If it continues to decline, it will reach a point where it can no longer function effectively and our planet will be unable to sustain the ecosystems that support humankind.

Climate change is the biggest single threat to our Ocean's health, but it's not the only one. If the Ocean is to continue functioning at a level capable of sustaining life as we know it, we need to tackle climate change and alleviate the other pressures we exert upon it.

IPSO's unique consortium of scientists and other Ocean experts — including those from the legal, communications and political arenas — identify the current problems, project the future outcomes of these problems and develop workable solutions to alter the trajectory of degradation.

Everything that IPSO does, it does to preserve our Ocean so that life as we know it can continue.