And, this apprehension has been brought to the attention of the United Nations by Barbados prime minister, Freundel Stuart, using his position as a member of the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability.

Stuart told a special event convened at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development that, while members of the High-Level Panel serve in their own capacity, it would have been remiss on his part if he did not highlight some of the concerns his group of countries (SIDS) had.

He said that humanity was faced with a crisis of unprecedented proportions if urgent corrective measures were not taken to prevent the further decline and potential collapse of the world's ocean system. His argument being: "global sustainability cannot be achieved nor climate change addressed effectively without healthy and productive oceans.