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World Oceans Day
The first official World Oceans Day was held on June 8th 2009 by United Nations to enable people to recognize the importance of the world’s oceans and their conservation. The Secretary-General of the United Nations gave the following message: ‘The first observance of World Oceans Day allows us to highlight the many ways in which oceans contribute to society. It is also an opportunity to recognize the considerable challenges we face in maintaining their capacity to regulate the global climate, supply essential ecosystem services and provide sustainable livelihoods and safe recreation’.
The oceans and seas make up two thirds of the Earth’s surface and form the wildest places left on Earth. They are biological important ecosystems rich in biodiversity.
Seafood is delicious and good for our health. We are encouraged to eat more fish as the omega fatty acids are protective against heart disease and good for the brain. The oceans are however being over-fished and some 84 million tonnes of fish are caught each year. Of this catch 20 million tonnes is a ‘by-catch’ of marine organisms which are not considered to be commercially valuable and are simply returned to the sea often dead. The ‘by-catch’ consists of fish and other animals such as sea turtles, marine mammals and sea birds. Furthermore, about 60, 000 whales and dolphins are killed each year by fishing vessels and nets.
Nearly nine tenths of European stocks are over-fished, and around a third including cod are so depleted that the adult fish don’t have a change to breed and replace the stock. Bottom dredging trawlers remove all marine life in their path and consequently the South Pacific and American coastal waters have almost been fished to extinction.
Cod fishing was banned in the Newfoundland Grand Banks, off the east coast of Canada, one of the richest fisheries in the world where it was said that a basket could be lowered into the sea and it would be full of cod, after the collapse of cod in 1992 and even today stocks have yet to recover.
Up to 75% of the world's fish stocks are fully exploited, over exploited or depleted according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. The latest estimates indicate that around a third of the world's oceans need to be closed to fishing, perhaps forever, to regenerate stocks.
Europe needs to take effective action to prevent over-fishing. Wild fish stocks need to be protected by ensuring that all fish comes from sustainable fishing practices. That means smaller fishing fleets, local controls, and extensive marine conservation areas where there would be no fishing at all.
Another problem is pirate fishing. Pirate fishing is violent, eco-damaging and illegal fishing which deprives some of the world's most vulnerable marine communities of food and is leading to ecological catastrophe. This illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is one of the most serious threats to the future of world fisheries. It is now occurring in virtually all fishing grounds from shallow coastal waters to deep oceans.
According to a report by the Environmental Justice Foundation pirate fishing is believed to account for a significant proportion of the global catch and to be costing developing countries up to $15bn a year. Investigators found that unscrupulous Chinese, European and Latin American companies are operating illegal gear, fishing in sea areas they are not allowed to and are not reporting their catches. In addition, ships are laundering illegally caught fish by transferring them at sea to legal boats making it impossible to identify catches.
According to the report, the situation is particularly serious in African waters where pirate fishing may now be taking nearly 30% of the catch from local fishermen thereby stealing food from some of the poorest people in the world thereby ruining the lives of local fishermen in countries like Somalia and Angola. An estimated 700 foreign-owned vessels are fishing regularly in Somalian waters for endangered tuna, shark and lobster. Heavily armed foreign vessels come close inshore and compete with small scale, artisan fishermen destroying their nets and traps and even killing them during violent confrontations.
Las Palmas in the Canary islands is at the centre of the illegal fishing trade in the Atlantic ocean. IUU vessels tranship illegal catches which then enter Europe and the international market. The port only employs a handful of inspectors some of which are believed to have been killed.
Rich countries can police some oceans, at great expense. In 2003, the Australian navy chased the Uruguayan-flagged Viarsa 1 trawler for 21 days across the Southern ocean. Its illegal catch of Patagonian toothfish was finally sold for over $1million.
Apart from the human misery that the pirate fishers are causing, pirate fishing is resulting in the depletion of fish stocks throughout the World’s oceans. A global database of high seas fishing vessels needs to be set up with onboard observers, aerial patrols and more patrol vessels to prevent pirate fishing.
Climate change is another factor affecting the oceans and warming oceans are leading to coral reef bleaching thereby destroying the most biodiverse marine ecosystem and effort to reduce carbon emissions are essential for the world’s oceans.
Our oceans are our responsibility and we collectively have a duty to protect the marine environment and carefully manage its resources. What can you a citizen of Our Future Planet do to protect marine wildlife? First, only eat sustainably harvested fish. What else can you do? Have your say. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Add your comment below. Not a Citizen? Sign up
*Image taken from http://www.thankyouocean.org/news/podcasts
