Human Pressures in 2026

Editions
2026 2025
This edition of the Starfish Barometer illustrate that human pressure remain structurally unchanged. Limited progress in decarbonization, emerging threats to vulnerable deep-Ocean ecosystems and plastic pollution are further undermining the Ocean's health, while gaps in governance and monitoring systems continue to hamper effective responses to these mounting pressures. 
Ocean StateSocietal Harms
Ocean StateSocietal Harms

Global shipping emissions remain stable, showing limited progress in decarbonization.

Fossil fuel CO2 emissions are the main contributor to recent climate change. Global fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased by 1.1% between 2024 and 2025 and reached a record high of 38.1 billion tonnes CO2 in 2025, with 2025 emissions from international shipping at 0.6 billion tonnes CO2 like their 2024 value. A Net Zero framework, proposing a 100 US$ per tonne CO2 fee on vessels exceeding emission thresholds, was developed by the International Maritime Organization but stalled in 2025 and is rescheduled for 2026.

67% of industrial fishing vessels in large coastal marine protected areas go untracked.

Between 2022 and 2024, an estimated 67% of industrial fishing vessels operating in coastal Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) larger than 1 km2 were not publicly tracked, highlighting widespread unsustainable fishing practices and major shortcomings in transparency and governance. These MPAs represent 17.4% of global marine protection, yet industrial fishing pressure remains largely untracked. In contrast, industrial fishing activity is close to zero in fully and highly protected MPAs, which currently cover only about 2.2% of the global Ocean, underscoring the effectiveness of strong protection measures when properly implemented and enforced. Climate change further exacerbates these governance challenges by shifting fish distributions and fishing effort. Expanding marine protection under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework target to conserve 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030, coupled with effective monitoring, enforcement, and climate-adapted governance, is critical to reducing unsustainable fishing as a direct human pressure on Ocean ecosystems. The proportion of overfished stocks has been increasing at a rate of approximately 1% per year over the past two decades.

31 exploration contracts for deep-sea mineral resources are currently active

The deep sea is the largest and least understood biome on Earth; it holds a remarkable diversity of life forms adapted to extreme conditions, which it is important for global biodiversity and function, including fisheries' support and climate regulation. A total of thirty-one contracts lasting fifteen years each are currently ongoing in areas beyond national jurisdictions, issued by the International Seabed Authority, including 19 contracts for polymetallic nodules, 7 for polymetallic sulphides and 5 for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. Exploration activities consist of geological studies, mineral resource assessments, bathymetric measurements and environmental surveys, and sampling. They can also include the development and testing of mining technology and mineral processing techniques. If scaled up to industrial levels without effective environmental safeguards, deep-sea mining could have severe long-term impacts on deep-Ocean ecosystems due to their slow recovery rates. In 2026, eight new countries opposed deep-seabed mining, bringing the global total to 40 countries.

Plastic waste reached a record 130 Mt with up to 10% potentially entering the Ocean.

Global plastic production continues to rise, and annual plastic waste polluting the environment reached 130 Mt/year in 2025. Due to the lack of global monitoring, the proportion of total waste that reaches the Ocean remains highly uncertain, likely between 1 and 14 Mt/year. The main sources of marine litter are land-based, and plastics constitute 85% of total marine litter. The seafloor is the primary sink for large plastic debris, with approximately 11 million Mt accumulated globally, where recovery is neither technically nor financially feasible. More than 2,800 marine species are impacted by plastic pollution through entanglement, ingestion, chemical contamination, and other processes. While an agreement for an International Plastics Treaty failed in 2025, a Global Plastic Action Partnership is advancing systemic and circular-economy solutions to reduce plastic pollution.