Look at all the surrounding stuff. Unless you’re in the middle of the desert or somewhere else far from civilization, nearly everything you see traveled to you by sea. “Ships bring 80–90% of most everything you want or need, or the raw materials used for making those things,” says Natasha Brown, a senior spokesperson for the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency with 175 member states. The organization oversees shipping safety and security and is responsible for preventing water and air pollution from ships. “Mobile phones, iPads, grains for breakfast cereal, iron ore, crude oil, bananas, and avocados. All of it crosses the oceans by ship.”