(VOVworld) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the international community to step up efforts to protect the health of oceans. At the UN’s celebration to mark World Oceans Day on Wednesday, Ban underscored that in order to protect the health of oceans, it is crucial to know their current state, and also understand the impacts that human activities and climate change are having on them.

Plastic bottles and garbage waste from a village in Timor-Leste wash on the shores of a river and then spill into the sea. (Photo: UN Photo/Martine Perret)

At the celebration, Irina Bokova, the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said that 2016 is the year when the world must start to keep the promises made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Despite the increasing damage of human activities to the marine environment, the ocean remains an important resource for eliminating extreme poverty, she added.

Under the theme “Healthy oceans, healthy planet”, this year’s World Oceans Day spotlights the threat that polluting the ocean poses to the health of aquatic animals and to humans.