Pakistani Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman on Wednesday called for collective efforts to protect oceans from pollution, saying healthy and clean oceans mean healthy humans.

“The oceans produce 50 to 75 per cent of our planet’s oxygen.

“Our earth’s weather, environment and rainfall depend on the sea.

“We are one of the lucky countries whose border is with the sea,” the minister said in her message on World Oceans Day.

Highlighting the importance of oceans, and the biological and environmental aspects associated with them, Rehman said that people should keep the beach and the sea as clean as their homes.

The minister regretted that humans have turned the oceans into piles of waste and plastic.

According to some studies, there are 51 trillion pieces of plastic in the surface water of oceans alone.

She said pollution and waste in the oceans is a major concern.

“The pollution affects not only marine life but every living thing on land,” she said.