WASHINGTON (Feb. 14) - Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop pristine,might be the lament of today's Ancient Mariner. Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the planet, and every single spot has been affected by people in some way. Scientists revealed a new map on Thursday that shows marine ecosystems around the world that have been affected by human activities. High impact areas are shown in red, followed by dark orange, light orange,yellow, green and blue, which signals low impact. Researchers studying 17 different activities ranging from fishing to pollution compiled a new map showing how and where people have impacted the seas. The map was released at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston and published in Friday's edition of the journal Science. "Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me," said lead author Ben Halpern, an assistant research scientist at the National Center forEcological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California.
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