The planetary ocean is gradually losing its sand

Human aggression against nature is increasingly extensive and dangerous. Approximately six billion tons of marine sand and other sediments are extracted from oceans each year, according to the United Nations, warning of the serious consequences of this activity on biodiversity and fishery resources. This is the first time that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been able to establish these data, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). Experts used the Automatic Identification System (AIS) of ships to locate them and then trained AI to distinguish sand extraction vessels based on their movement patterns. These signals emitted by ships allow us to "have access to the movements of all vessels on the planet," said Pascal Peduzzi, director of data analysis for UNEP, to AFP. Then, all we have to do is analyze this data using AI, he added. The analysis is still in its early stages, and only 50% of ships are currently being tracked. The UN estimates that between four and eight billion tons of marine sand and other sediments were extracted each year from seas and oceans between 2012 and 2019. "This means an average of six billion tons per year, or the equivalent of over one million trucks daily," Peduzzi explained. The UN hopes to be able to publish figures for the period 2020-2023 this year. The data shows that this activity continues to grow and is "beginning to take on gigantic proportions," Peduzzi said, emphasizing that rivers themselves transport between 10 and 16 billion tons of sediments into seas and oceans annually. Extractor vessels are like "vacuum cleaners" that "grind the seabed" and "sterilize" it, causing the disappearance of oceanic microorganisms and endangering biodiversity and fishery resources, the expert stressed. Beyond the publication of the figures, the UN hopes to engage in discussions with companies in this sector to encourage them to be more environmentally friendly by improving extraction practices.