It has now been widely accepted that human activities have a negative impact on marine ecosystems. Anthropogenic influences can be direct (i.e. through expoitation, pollution, and habitat destruction) or indirect (i.e. climate change). Overall, this results in declining biodiversity and impoverished ecosystem functioning, leading to a loss of ecosystem services provided by marine and coastal ecosystems. In the coastal zone, these human impacts triggered biodiversity loss, which resulted in negative impacts on important ecosystem services including food provision (fisheries), provision of nursery habitats, connectivity between habitats and filtering and detoxification services.