Oceans and Human Health, Introduction

Oceans and Human Health (OHH) is an emerging “metadiscipline” that involves oceanography, waterborne and seafood-borne diseases, harmful algal blooms, epidemiology, comparative animal physiology and pathology, natural products and synthetic organic chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, social sciences, engineering, and other ocean-related areas. In large part, it evolved from the realization that the relationship between the oceans and human health is a “two-way street.” Scientists, educators, and policymakers and enforcers have long focused on the things done by humankind that degrade the oceans and the marine organisms dependent upon them. More recently, new emphasis has been given to the useful and healthful products that derive from the oceans (e.g., η-3 fatty acids), and the concept of “One Health” (Fig. 1) is now being applied to the oceans (see http://onehealthinitiative.com/).

Oceans and Human Health, Introduction. Figure 1

The principles of one health applied to the ocean...