Pages above:
Greenpeace activists use wire cables to tie the trawl doors together on the bottom trawler Ocean Reward (NZ).
Enlarge Image
It’s taken two years for this UN review, launched in mid-July, to
confirm what everyone knew already: that deep-sea life and
vulnerable habitats like cold water corals are being wiped out by a
relatively few number of extremely destructive fishing vessels. That’s
two years in which extinctions have almost certainly occurred and vast
areas of deep sea ecosystems have been destroyed forever. (You can see in this map of protected areas how little of the high seas are actually protected - some areas are mere pin points!)
“The UN must take the only step which can halt this uncontrolled destruction, to establish a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling when the General Assembly (UNGA) meets in October,” says Karen Sack oceans policy advisor to Greenpeace International.
The review was requested by the UN General Assembly in 2004 and was conducted by the UN Secretary General. It is based on submissions by member states reporting on what they have done individually, and as members of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOS), to stop destructive fishing practices - including bottom trawling - on the high seas. It concluded that, “many fisheries are not managed until they are overexploited and clearly depleted … This raises the question of the urgent need for interim measures in particular circumstances, pending the adoption of conservation and management regimes.”
Well we could have told them that. Actually, we did. And we’re not alone - Greenpeace is a member of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), an alliance of nearly 60 international environmental and conservation organisations who have been campaigning for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling since 2003.
Matthew Gianni from the DSCC said, “NGOs, scientists, even governments have repeatedly said that the existing measures are inadequate and that a Review would only confirm this. Sadly it is a Review which has cost the deep oceans two years worth of protection. This must now be the year when the buck passing stops.”
Our Oceans Campaigner Sari Tolvanen was even more outspoken. “If the international community fails to take action to protect the global commons when the evidence is so clearcut, one must seriously call into question its ability to manage other global resources of benefit to all humankind,” she said in response to the report.
The negotiations around a moratorium will occur at the UN General Assembly on October 4 and 5 prior to decisions being made in November on a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling.
Many of our Ocean Defenders have participated in this issue, with governments receiving tens of thousands of emails asking them to “stop the clock” on bottom trawling.
“The UN must take the only step which can halt this uncontrolled destruction, to establish a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling when the General Assembly (UNGA) meets in October,” says Karen Sack oceans policy advisor to Greenpeace International.
The review
The review was requested by the UN General Assembly in 2004 and was conducted by the UN Secretary General. It is based on submissions by member states reporting on what they have done individually, and as members of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOS), to stop destructive fishing practices - including bottom trawling - on the high seas. It concluded that, “many fisheries are not managed until they are overexploited and clearly depleted … This raises the question of the urgent need for interim measures in particular circumstances, pending the adoption of conservation and management regimes.”
Well we could have told them that. Actually, we did. And we’re not alone - Greenpeace is a member of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), an alliance of nearly 60 international environmental and conservation organisations who have been campaigning for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling since 2003.
The buck stops here
Matthew Gianni from the DSCC said, “NGOs, scientists, even governments have repeatedly said that the existing measures are inadequate and that a Review would only confirm this. Sadly it is a Review which has cost the deep oceans two years worth of protection. This must now be the year when the buck passing stops.”
Our Oceans Campaigner Sari Tolvanen was even more outspoken. “If the international community fails to take action to protect the global commons when the evidence is so clearcut, one must seriously call into question its ability to manage other global resources of benefit to all humankind,” she said in response to the report.
The negotiations around a moratorium will occur at the UN General Assembly on October 4 and 5 prior to decisions being made in November on a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling.
Many of our Ocean Defenders have participated in this issue, with governments receiving tens of thousands of emails asking them to “stop the clock” on bottom trawling.
A summary of the UN review
