The ocean is the largest of Earth's systems that stabilizes climate and supports life and human well-being. Despite its vital role in our ecosystem, the ocean has been gravely degraded and historically underrepresented within international climate change agreements.
The ocean contains an abundance of biodiversity that is vital to global food security. However, marine biodiversity is declining. Marine protected areas and marine reserves have been used to protect biodiversity, conserve threatened species and rebuild exploited species, but are perceived as restrictive to fishing, which has slowed progress towards ocean protection targets. Here, we perform a spatial prioritisation of the ocean to protect biodiversity, threatened species and food security.