According to some people, 2012 is supposed to be a year of
transformative events. Well I don’t know about astronomical alignments,
the Mayan calendar and all that, but for us oceans campaigners, 2012 is
definitely significant – for 2012 is the year by which the world’s
governments should have committed to a global network of marine
protected areas. The shocking thing is that for all the fine words,
currently our oceans are unprotected: only a mere 5.9percent of national
waters and just 0.5percent of international waters are set aside as
off-limits to destructive fishing, energy exploration and other
industrial threats, leaving the vast majority open to plunder. While it
may not be the end of the world just yet, scientists from the Census of Marine Life and IPSO have been warning us that the oceans and the wonderful array of marine life they hold cannot withstand our pressures forever.
In order to address this sad state of affairs, Greenpeace has drawn up an Emergency Oceans Rescue Plan and
is campaigning to ensure the world’s governments live up to their
promises and put in place the steps to create a global network of marine
reserves. While the Arctic Ocean and
some other areas of the high seas totally lack any means by which to
establish marine reserves and protect marine life there is one area
where efforts are being made to provide adequate protection – the Southern Ocean.
These icy waters that surround Antarctica are home
to some of the most extraordinary creatures on earth, including blue
whales, emperor penguins and giant polar sea spiders. These waters are
some of the most pristine on the planet and the Ross Sea in particular
is almost unique in having a full complement of top predators, while in
most parts of the world’s oceans up to 90 percent of the top predators
have been removed by overfishing. Unlike other areas of our oceans,
there are fairly comprehensive rules as to what activities may take
place in the waters around Antarctica. This is thanks to the existence
of a body created specifically to manage these fragile and unique
waters: the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR),
a key component of the Antarctic Treaty System. Most importantly,
CCAMLR rules enable the Commission to establish MPAs and marine reserves
and the Commission has set itself the task of creating a set of
proposals for protected areas by 2012 in line with the global target.
This is a unique opportunity for the member countries of CCAMLR to
set a fantastic precedent by establishing a comprehensive network of
marine protected areas throughout the Southern Ocean and show the rest
of the world what can be done to protect the high seas if only there is
the political will. Because governments do not always have that
commitment, Greenpeace and other groups have come together as the Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) to ensure that areas such as the Ross Sea are given the protection they so desperately need.
Today is the official launch of the AOA as well as the publication of an expert report on why the Ross Sea should be included in a future Southern Ocean marine reserve network.
Among the supporters of the AOA are Hollywood actor Ed Norton, and
the preeminent marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle, seen
here in a video about the importance of the Antactic region to our
world:
No comments:
Post a Comment