Marine Life in the Mediterranean faces the greatest risk of damage and death. The surveys identified places such as the Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, China's shelves, Baltic, and the Caribbean as having the most threatened biodiversity.
The Mediterranean, which contains almost 17,000 identified species, scored the maximum threat rating of 5 for four of the categories while the Gulf of Mexico, with just over 15,000 named species, and seas off China, with more than 22,000 species, scored the highest threat rating in three areas: overfishing, habitat loss and pollution.
Dense coastal populations of humans tend to be packed along enclosed seas, said Miloslavich, meaning increased pollution and extraction of more biodiversity from the water.
Scientists studying the Mediterranean also identified problems related to increased litter from shipping and munitions across the sea as well as bombs discharged during the Kosovo war.
Significant levels of polluting dioxins have been detected in the rose shrimp, Aristeus antennatus, which itself is under population pressure from overfishing, since it has been exploited in the Catalan Sea for more than six decades.
The Mediterranean also faces major problems because of invasive species displacing the creatures that already live there.
Vira Maritime