Economic output by the world's oceans is worth $2.5 trillion a year, rivaling nations such as Britain or Brazil, but marine wealth is sinking fast because of overfishing, pollution and climate change, a study said on Thursday.
"The deterioration of the oceans has never been so fast as in the last decades," Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF International conservation group, said of the study, "Reviving the Ocean Economy."
Ocean output, judged as a nation, would rank seventh in terms of gross domestic product, behind Britain and just ahead of Brazil on a list led by the United States and China, the study said.