Six billion tonnes of sand are extracted from world's oceans each year

Almost six billion tonnes of sand and other sediment are extracted from the world's seas and oceans every year on average, according to the United Nations. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned on Tuesday of the devastating toll on biodiversity and coastal communities, adding that the scale of dredging was growing, with dire consequences. "The scale of environmental impacts of shallow sea mining activities and dredging is alarming," said Pascal Peduzzi, who heads UNEP's analytics centre GRID-Geneva. He pointed to the effects on biodiversity, as well as on water turbidity, and noise effects on marine mammals. The UNEP launched a global data platform on sediment extraction in marine environments, Marine Sand Watch, which uses artificial intelligence to track and monitor dredging activities of sand, clay, silt, gravel and rock in the world's marine environment.