Brussels – The sea is increasingly under threat and the temperature is rising in every body of water on the globe. The grim panorama was photographed by the Marine Environment Monitoring Service di Copernicus, which today released its ninth report on the state of the oceans. “The triple planetary crisis is not a future threat, but a present reality in our basins,” said European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis. The research was conducted using several satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA), which are part of the European Union’s observation programme, Copernicus.
The triple planetary crisis, as mentioned by Kadis, is a term defined by the United Nations. It is used to describe the three effects of the planet’s deteriorating state: global warming, loss of biodiversity, and pollution. These elements are interlinked, and the worsening of one of them in turn affects the other two.
️ This global data visualisation from the #CopernicusEU Ocean State Report 9 highlights the widespread pressures on the ocean: rising sea levels, warming, acidification, and plastic waste affect all basins. #ImageOfTheDay
https://t.co/8F48N08dqV pic.twitter.com/RNkbFhHsVi
— Copernicus EU (@CopernicusEU) September 30, 2025
The rise in temperatures
The oceans are suffering day by day from the threefold grip of anthropisation. The warming of the waters is one of the most immediate effects. The oceans experience very intense heatwaves every year. In the Mediterranean, the water surface was 4.3 °C warmer during the period between May 2022 and early 2023, the most intense wave ever recorded by European satellites.
In the spring of 2024, the global sea reached a record temperature of 21 °C. The ones suffering the most are the enclosed seas, such as the Mediterranean, which increases its average heat by 0.4 °C every ten years. In essence, since 1982, when the measurements began, temperatures have risen by about 1.6 °C.
The rise in the thermal degree caused the sea level to rise by approximately 22.8 centimetres from 1901 to 2024. The rise affected the lives of approximately 200 million Europeans living in coastal areas.
Behind this growth is the thawing of the polar ice caps. Arctic ice has recorded four consecutive lows, losing an area almost twice the size of Portugal.
Sea Level Rise: The Ocean Keeps Climbing
The latest reports confirms that global mean sea level has risen by an average of 3.4 mm per year over the past 31 years.
Dive into the State of the Ocean Report 2024
https://t.co/N8Lc4QZZvf#OceanScience #OceanAction pic.twitter.com/ZI4a33Ztpp– UNESCO Ocean (@IocUnesco) September 12, 2025
Biodiversity
The triple crisis has as its second point the decrease in biodiversity. The effect is clearly visible in our oceans. In the ninth State of the Seas report, scientists analysed the changes in the global landscape over the past 26 years. What emerges is a diversion of species towards the poles, where the sea is colder, and a consequent depletion of coastal regions fed by nutrient-rich waters.
Warmer basins have been invaded by non-native species such as the Atlantic blue crab and the bearded fireworm. These species have brought local fisheries to the brink of collapse. The report pays particular attention to the damage caused by the presence of the blue crab in the waters of the Po Delta. This animal has been able to reduce the production of local clams by 75 to 100 per cent in a short period of time.
Al @Tg1Rai L. Zacchetti PhD student at IRBIM Ancona talks about the presence of the blue crab in our lagoons and coastlines, which requires coordinated action guided by scientific research: monitoring, selective containment and valorisation of the resource.@CNRsocial_ pic.twitter.com/xLs9mDLXiG
– IRBIM CNR (@CnrIrbim) September 23, 2025
Pollution of the seas
Seabed contamination is the last point in the triple crisis. The presence of waste plastic invades all oceans, everywhere on the globe. For the European agency, three-quarters of the countries that emit more than 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste have corals at risk of extinction. The decline in these plants has a knock-on effect on fish nutrition.
Another problem is the acidification of the oceans, which occurs due to the overabundance of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by the water and, through a series of chemical processes, makes the ocean more acidic or, rather, less alkaline. The most serious effects are again suffered by corals, which are essential for the survival of fish. In addition, shell animals such as molluscs and crustaceans struggle to build a resistant shell without the proper chemical balance in the water. A crisis that, in short, damages all ecosystems linked to the sea, both man-made and animal.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
