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Hundreds of years ago, before the human imprint began taking such a heavy toll on the environment, the ocean ecosystem was a finely orchestrated symphony of spectacular underwater life. Beneath clear blue Caribbean waters, for example, coral reef formations gave rise to a fantasia of spiny sea urchins, huge Nassau groupers, sleek reef sharks and tropical-hued parrotfish grazing on green algae, forming a complex and beautiful web of life. But today the picture is vastly different. Most marine ecosystems around the world are now ghosts of their former selves. Many Caribbean coral reef systems have been wracked by disease, runoff from coastal development, and overfishing. Once teeming with huge fish like white seabass and horn sharks, today the kelp forests off the California coast are largely devoid of big fish. And yet many of us do not know how much our oceans have declined from even forty years ago. VIEW ARTICLE AT Environmental Defense

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