An ocean dip

Percolating through this special oceans issue are news stories, features, opinion pieces, book reviews and photo galleries with a common theme: the importance of our oceans. As we increase our knowledge of the complex interdependencies that sustain biodiversity, it becomes increasingly obvious that there would be no life on our blue planet without healthy oceans. It’s also increasingly obvious that we can no longer continue to degrade our oceans with impunity. For too long, we weren’t aware of the consequences of our exploitation or chose to believe that the oceans are so vast that no amount of human use and abuse would matter. But no longer. We now know that extracting tin ore from the oceans to keep us supplied with ever fancier mobile phones and other gadgets (see Dredging the depths Page 20) has terrible costs, and that the destruction of seagrass beds (see Blue seagrass of home Page 30) is also taking away a vital carbon sink in a warming planet. The sheer wonder of the underwater world is celebrated with our gallery of award-winning images (see Page 66) and we introduce a new regular feature of travel insights called Passport (see Page 82) with an interview with intrepid freediver Anna von Boetticher. Mark Crowley Russel travelled to Sulawesi in Indonesia to talk to the founder of a thriving ecotourism business that has transformed damaged reefs and established a strong, mutually benefical relationship with the local fishers (see Page 38). We hope you enjoy our dip into the ocean world.