Connecting the oceans and human health.

oceans have been perceived by mankind as a producer of essential protein, a vital transportation artery, a source of great danger (from storms, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, and venomous and predatory animals) and the greatest mystery on the planet, inspiring untold realms of poetry and prose. The oceans are the world's most important sources of biological activity, water, biodiversity, and biomass production. They supply food, oxygen, and other natural products critical for human existence, and interactions between the oceans and atmosphere shape our climate and weather. Today, we recognize the oceans for all these attributes and also for their marvelous, incredible, and almost infinite diversity of life forms and life processes, as well as the extraordinary potential for many of those life forms, biological and physical processes, and other resources to be harnessed for human welfare. We are just beginning to understand the numerous and complex ways in which humans can affect the oceans, and the oceans, in turn, can affect human health, including the discovery of new pharmaceuticals to fight human illnesses. Although not truly an island, the United States is bordered on all sides by seas, and the lands immediately adjacent to the coast annually contribute over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy. In addition, our coastal waters provide invaluable waste processing and other ecologic services for free. Approximately 25% of the country's land area lies within coastal counties, which provide homes and workplaces for > 50% of our population. In addition, ocean-based tourism is the fastest growing component of the coastal economy, with hundreds of millions of Americans and international guests visiting our coasts annually. Not surprisingly, coastal population densities are several times higher than in the rest of the nation, and coastal sprawl is consuming land at ≥ 3 times the rate of population growth. These trends are projected to continue and may accelerate, resulting in permanent alterations to a large portion of the coastal landscape and potentially serious impacts on marine ecosystems and public health. Estuaries—those places where freshwater rivers meet and mix with the saltwater of the ocean—are dynamic environments renowned for their ecologic complexity, biological productivity, and seafood harvests and for the critical nursery habitat they provide for many ecologically and economically important species. Linking the land to the sea, the shallow tidal creeks and embayments along the shores of larger estuaries are the first zone of impact for many of the chemical and …