We have found ways to capture, kill and market ocean wildlife on an unprecedented scale. It's an absolute catastrophe.

I've spent thousands of hours under water. And even in the deepest dive I have ever made, 2.5 miles (about 4 kilometers) down, I saw trash and other tangible evidence of our presence.

The observations that have developed over the years have given us perspective about where we fit in. We are newcomers, really recent arrivals on a planet that is four and a half billion years old.

When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.

No water, no life. No blue, no green.

We're still under the weight of this impression that the ocean is too big to fail, that the planet is too big to fail.

We have the power to abstain from destructive behavior.