long beach: Overfishing in international waters has risen in the past five years and shows the need to ratify a modern global treaty to protect the high seas, a Greenpeace report said Wednesday.
The non-governmental network calls on as many countries as possible to sign the treaty next week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The text, which was finalized in June, was hailed as a “historic” agreement with the potential to better protect oceans.
A key element of the treaty is to create a legal framework to protect high seas marine areas — beyond 230 miles (370 kilometers) of coastline — whose good health is vital to humanity.
The report warned that without enforcement of the agreement, this protection would be minimal.
She added, “The reality at sea is moving in the opposite direction to the ambition stipulated in the treaty.”
Chris Thorne, an oceans activist with Greenpeace, urged governments to intervene immediately, aboard the group’s ship Arctic Sunrise, which docked on Wednesday in Long Beach, California, for an event marking the release of the report.
A person points to a map of priority areas proposed for protection under a proposed global ocean treaty on a Greenpeace ship docked at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, California, on September 13, 2023. AFP photo
To protect 30 percent of Earth’s land and oceans by 2030, a target adopted by the COP15 Convention on Biodiversity last year, “there is no time to waste,” he told AFP.
Fishing hours on the high seas increased by 8.5 percent between 2018 and 2022, according to the report, which collects data from an organization capable of tracking boat movements via its transmitters.
This intensification is particularly evident in environmentally sensitive areas identified by the United Nations as potential future marine reserves. Greenpeace reported that fishing there increased by 22.5 percent during the same period.
“Poaching is a big problem,” Thorne said.
“This fishing pressure is completely unsustainable, and is pushing our oceans to the brink.”
The Greenpeace report notes that in 30 years, Pacific bluefin tuna stocks have collapsed by more than 90 percent.
It also draws attention to the damage done in the open seas by longline fishing, which uses lines rigged with thousands of baited hooks tens of miles long.
The destructive method accidentally catches many sharks.
Given such dire situations, using the treaty to create high seas reserves is crucial, said Samantha Murray, a marine biodiversity specialist at the University of California San Diego.
“We have up to 670 percent more biomass inside highly protected, fully protected reserves,” she told reporters.
“When we leave the ocean alone and let it be and allow it to heal, we get more complex ecosystems that can be more resilient.”
In order to enter into force before the next UN Ocean Conference, in 2025, the treaty will need to be ratified by at least 60 countries. This would allow for the convening of a Conference of the Parties, authorized to establish marine reserves.
Scientists and NGOs have already identified dozens of priority high seas areas in need of protection.
They include the Costa Rica Heat Dome, a nutrient-rich marine biodiversity hotspot hospitable to blue whales; the Emperor Seamount chain of underwater mountains near Hawaii; and the Sargasso Sea region in the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition, the Salas y Gomez and Nazca hills off the coast of Chile may be among the first reserves to see the light of day.