The Duke of Edinburgh has backed a campaign calling for action to protect the world's oceans from pollution and over-fishing.

The campaign aims to raise awareness about the effects of pollution from industry, shipping and the oil and gas industries on marine wildlife.

Prince Philip: "Something must be done before the situation gets even worse"

As president of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Prince Philip gave his support to the campaign at the organisation's annual conference in London on Monday.

He called for urgent action to save the world's remaining fish stocks.

WWF president, Prince Phillip warned of the dangers ahead if international agreements continued to be ignored (Dur:0'14")

"Something must be done before the situation gets even worse," he said.

"You can take away just so many bricks before the wall collapses completely. There may have been a time when it was legitimate to question whether there was conclusive evidence that the oceans were being overfished. That time has long since gone.

"There is overwhelming evidence that not just the fish stocks but the vast bulk of the renewable resources of the oceans are being over-exploited," he said.

The WWF is calling for stricter controls on fishing and coastal development. It also wants the formation of a network of ocean parks and reserves to protect marine wildlife.

Fishing is a vast international industry and provides food for millions of people.

Marine life is an important source of medicines, for example sea sponges and corals are used for the treatment of leukaemia and bone graft materials, while kelp is used in insecticides and medicines.

But according to the WWF human activity has put much marine life in jeopardy.

The charity said that more is known about the surface of the planet Venus than is known about the deepest parts of the world's oceans.

Salt water covers two thirds of the world's surface and the seas and oceans make up 98% of the area of the world in which life is found.

To boost the campaign to protect oceans the United Nations has designated 1998 the International Year of the Ocean.

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