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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/10/un-ocean-treaty-is-once-in-a-lifetime-chance-to-protect-the-high-seas>
"The world has a “once in a lifetime” chance to protect the high seas from
exploitation, warned scientists and environmentalists, as negotiators meet at
the UN headquarters in New York this week to hammer out a new treaty on the
oceans.
One scientist described the treaty, which will set out a legal framework to
protect biodiversity and govern the high seas, as the most significant ocean
protection agreement for four decades.
“It’s extremely important it happens now,” said Prof Alex Rogers, science
director of Rev Ocean, an ocean research NGO. “We’ve continued to see
industrialisation of areas beyond national boundaries, including distant-water
fishing and potentially deep-sea mining.”
A vast portion of the ocean, 64% by surface area, lies outwith the exclusive
economic zones (EEZs) that cover approximately 200 nautical miles from the
shorelines of individual states. Referred to as the high seas, they host a wide
array of ecosystems and species, many insufficiently studied and recorded. The
increasing reach of shipping vessels, seabed mining and new activities such as
“bioprospecting” of marine species have put the high seas and its biodiversity
at increasing risk of exploitation.
A group of 50 countries has signed up to the 30x30 coalition, which launched in
January 2021 and aims to protect 30% of the planet’s land and sea by 2030. But
without an agreement, these much-heralded pledges will have no legal basis in
the high seas.
Currently, all countries have the right to navigate, fish and carry out
scientific research on the high seas with few restrictions. Only 1.2% of this
marine area is protected."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
