It turns out that no-one rules the waves
With the ocean increasingly under siege from climate change, pollution, over-fishing, industrial activity and plastics, it is troubling that 60% of it has no conservation rules because it is outside national jurisdiction. Now the UN has plans for 'BBNJ' -- Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.
It wouldn't be the UN's style if it didn't have an acronym, and this one is hardly catchy. But in the words of Professor Alex Rogers, author of a report presented at a recent UN conference on the oceans, 'this is very, very important.' In addition to pollution and over-fishing, a lot of states are developing industrial activities in the ocean, from off-shore aquaculture to renewable energy to deep-sea mining. 'It’s really vital that we come to some international agreement on how to protect or manage biodiversity in the seas in the face of all these pressures,' Professor Rogers said.
The authors found that one area, the Bay of Bengal, is so now compromised by nitrogen run-off from agriculture that it is at a tipping point, where the entire ocean is at risk of flipping to a 'no-oxygen-system'. This would have a catastrophic impact on fish stocks, biodiversity and the 400 million people who live around the shores of the bay. Read more on this story here.
The Sustain alliance campaigns for greener, fairer and healthier food systems, for everyone. Read more about our campaign for Sustainable Fish Cities here.
Published Friday 21 July 2017
Sustainable Fish: A campaign to protect precious marine environments and fishing livelihoods, and call for fish to be bought from sustainable sources. We want to show what can be done if people and organisations make a concerted effort to change their buying habits.
