How much are our ecosystems worth?

I just read a report that contains this fascinating fact:

"A 2007 study found that the total value of ecosystem services and products provided by the world’s coastal ecosystems, including natural (terrestrial and aquatic) and human-transformed ecosystems, added up to $25,783 billion per year (Martinez et al., 2007)."

Although we know the value of the ocean because we experience it everyday as a source of our livelihoods, sometimes it takes seeing it as a dollar value for others to understand its value.

And as this fact shows us, THE OCEAN IS VALUABLE.

The Martinez citation is as follows:

Martinez, M.L., Intralawan, A., Vasquez, G., Perez-Maquero, O., Sutton, P. and Landgrave, R. 2007. The coasts of our world: Ecological, economic and social importance. Ecological Economics 63: 254-272