Oceans lost 2pc of oxygen

The world's oceans have lost more than two percent of their oxygen since 1960, with potentially devastating consequences for sea plants and animals, marine scientists said Wednesday.

In those five and a half decades, parts of the oceans devoid of oxygen, called anoxic waters, have quadrupled, said a study in the science journal Nature.

Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the Earth's surface, provide about half of the oxygen we breathe.

Most oxygen was lost in the Equatorial and North Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and the South Atlantic Ocean. The study also reiterated an older warning that the loss of oxygen would accelerate -- with predictions of a 1-7 percent decline by 2100.