The ocean feeds families, safeguards coasts, stores carbon and creates employment, yet we are allowing it to collapse before our eyes. Despite all of the benefits offered by the ocean, we are assaulting it through over-exploitation, habitat destruction, climate change and pollution. With most of the ocean's economic output reliant on its health, current conditions will only further erode the ocean's ability to provide essential services to humans and nature. The ocean is collapsing before our eyes, but the good news is that we have the tools to fix it. We have serious work to do to protect the ocean, starting with real global commitments on climate and sustainable development fishing and recreation is threatening marine wildlife including whales, dolphins, seabirds, cold water corals and maerl beds. More than 40,000 species - 50 per cent of the UKs plants and animals - live in British seas yet national species protection laws extend just 12 nautical miles from the coast. There is currently no adequate system to safeguard the full range of nationally and internationally important, vulnerable and sensitive marine areas. There has been enough talking about what should be done. Action must replace words now and legislation must be introduced in the next session of Parliament to save our seas before it is too late The conservation status of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea is of growing concern due to increasing pressure from human activities. Unknown to most people, about 20 different species of whales and dolphins can be found in the Mediterranean Sea and eight of them are resident in the area. The conservation status of four species, including sperm whale, common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and orca is critical, while one – the orca in the Strait of Gibraltar– is in immediate danger of extinction. Even common dolphins, once the most abundant species in the Mediterranean are now classified as Endangered in the IUCN Red List. This species has disappeared from the Adriatic Sea due to human impact and it faces local extinction in parts of the Ionian Sea is a sad case of fisheries mismanagement. Accidental death in fishing gear and over-fishing threaten top marine predators such as dolphins. Immediate action is needed, but governments have so far failed to implement proper conservation measures to give whales and dolphins a future in the region.