Re-imagining the Ocean​

A fact that often circulates about the ocean is that they cover over 70 percent of the earth’s surface. Less known, and perhaps more significant to a multibeing ocean justice framework, is that, 99.5 percent of the habitable volume of life on earth is contained in the ocean.

The ocean’s complex physical characteristics, such as their dynamic, sunless interior, sonic and magnetic architectures, and pressure and chemical exchanges add further to unknowability. Though constituting more than ninety percent of the Earth’s biosphere,[1] eighty percent of the ocean is beyond the reach of solar light. Marine biologist and aquanaut Sylvia Earle remarks also that the partial illumination of our terrestrial world is a bit odd as most planetary life is in the dark benthos and beyond (Earle 2019).

[1] The midwater ecosystem alone represents 90% of the Earth’s biosphere: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/deep-sea-mining-regulators-latest-meeting-on-rules-only-muddies-the-water/.

Susan Reid