Six ocean “hotspots” of marine diversity are getting walloped by climate change and industrial fishing, says a study in the journal Science Advances.
Such areas include the waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands, the southwestern Atlantic Ocean off Argentina; the western Indian Ocean off the African coast; “the central western Pacific Ocean surrounding Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines; the southwestern Pacific off Australia’s southern and eastern coast; and the Oceania region of the Pacific around the international date line,” says The Seattle Times.
“In those hot spots, the changes are already happening,” study co-author Andre Chiaradia, a senior scientist and penguin expert at the Phillip Island Nature Parks in Australia told the Times. “They are the most at risk.”