When compared to the world's top 10 economies, Earth's oceans rank as the seventh largest and a new report estimates the value of the ocean's key assets at US$24 trillion.

The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) report warns this value is rapidly depleting as the ocean's resources are becoming increasingly polluted and exploited.

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The combined annual value of the ocean's goods and services is found to be US$2.5 trillion, and its overall value as an asset is estimated to be 10 times this annual figure.

"The ocean rivals the wealth of the world's richest countries, but it is being allowed to sink to the depths of a failed economy. As responsible shareholders, we cannot seriously expect to keep recklessly extracting the ocean's valuable assets without investing in its future," said Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International.

The report considered the value of fisheries and other ocean life, global shipping lanes, natural coastal storm protection and productive values from coastlines and the ocean's role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. It also emphasized how much this value is being threatened by climate change, pollution and over exploitation.

Climate change is a leading cause of the ocean's failing health. Research included in the report shows at the current rate of warming, coral reefs that provide food, jobs and storm protection to several hundred million people will disappear completely by 2050.

More than just warming waters, climate change is inducing increased ocean acidity that will take hundreds of human generations for the oceans to repair.

The 60-page report titled "Reviving the Ocean Economy" stressed those estimates were clearly an underestimate since they don't include offshore oil and gas and wind energy or "intangibles such as the ocean's role in climate regulation."

WWF prepared the analysis in association with The Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and The Boston Consulting Group.

Among other things, the United Nations sustainable development goals should prioritize ocean recovery to be decided on later this year, and action must be taken to address ocean warming and acidification.

TagsOcean's Total Value is US$24 Trillion WWF Reveals, World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, World Wide Fund, Ocean, ocean acidification, global warming, ocean life, United Nations sustainable development goals, U.N. sustainable development goals