Little Known Hero of the Planet

We've all heard the notion that we know more about our own solar system than we do about our oceans. Now there are numbers to support this.


Unsung

A recent census of the seas has found 6,000 new species, and scientists estimate 750,000 species remain unknown. Talk about boldly going where no one has gone before. Humans have only just begun to fathom the benefits of the oceans to all life on the planet.

Still, we know oceans are key to everything. Australian Ian Poiner, the chairman of the census summed it up well in a few choice quotes that appeared in The Age:

''All surface life depends on life inside and beneath the oceans."

''Sea life provides half of our oxygen and a lot of our food and regulates climate.''

Read more here.

Photo courtesy of National Geographic.