Brussels, 30/06/2014 (Agence Europe) -The high seas should be declared a protected area to allow them to regenerate: that was the call launched in Brussels on Monday 30 June at a conference organised by the European Commission and the Global Ocean Commission, on the preservation of the oceans (see EUROPE 11107).
“We need to adopt appropriate rules to protect the oceans”, said Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for Fisheries, at a press conference in Brussels. She argued in favour of a reform of the United Nations Law of the Sea, “which is 30 years old”. Next year, the United Nations will discuss the possibility of concluding an agreement on the application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and “I welcome the work carried out on this subject by the Global Ocean Commission”, the commissioner added. “We can no longer afford to allow huge parts of the ocean to be a kind of lawless no man's land”, she said, referring to the high seas and the work of this global ocean commission. She reiterated that the EU has set an example in recent years. “What we need is international cooperation. I'm delighted that the American government is inclined to work with us and with other countries of the world, in Africa and Asia”, she added.
Trevor Manuel, co-chair of the global ocean commission, recalled a few of the recommendations of this body, which was set up 18 months ago. “We need to carry out an assessment of the situation so that we can understand the degree of degradation” of the oceans, he explained, before listing a number of proposals: - setting a specific ocean health objective among the UN targets to follow on from the millennium development goals after 2015; - launching an appeal in favour of a different kind of governance (the United Nations system is far too complex, there are too many authorities and nobody is responsible for decisions made concerning the oceans are); - ten or twelve countries fish on the high seas (some of which are members of the European Union) and the fleets of these countries manage to get these areas because they are subsidised by public funds. Furthermore, when these vessels are on the high seas, “nobody knows what goes on there. We are therefore calling for greater transparency as regards the subsidies. We might have to try to get rid of them and try to secure the same rules for all”, Manuel stressed; - all fishing vessels should have a unique identification number (with transponders on the vessels), transhipments on the high seas should be avoided and control measures are required in ports; - the traceability of fisheries products should be reinforced.
José Maria Figueres, also a co-chair of the global ocean commission, made other proposals: - it is expected that 33 billion tonnes of plastic will end up in the seas in 2015 (and many of these plastics affect the seabed). Therefore, a programme is required to prevent these products from getting into the seas. 33% of oil and 25% of gas come from the ocean, which means that there should be liability rules in the event of an accident. Unless the recommendations are implemented, we will have to think about closing certain areas of the high seas off to industrial fishing, Figueres went on to warn.
In answer to questions from the press, Damanaki explained that European Union subsidies of this kind (aid to fuel on the high seas) will be banned under the new common fisheries policy (CFP) and the EMFF (European Maritime and Fisheries Fund) for the years 2014-2020.
Pascal Lamy also took part
The former director of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, also took part in the work of this global ocean commission. In an open letter, Lamy says that “scientific progress tells us that half of the biological productivity in the ocean takes place in high seas and that it stores 500 million tonnes of carbon a year”. Amongst other things, he discussed the statistics for trawling on the high seas: $600 million of income, $60 million in profit and… $150 million in subsidies. “This means that consumers are paying for their fish twice: they are paying the fishmonger and they are paying the taxman”. Among the important measures recommended by the global ocean commission, Lamy highlights: - reform of the governance of the oceans; - obligation on the states to publish their fishing subsidies and to freeze and then phase out fuel subsidies on the high seas (in order, he said, to “preserve small-scale coastal fishing, which is essential in feeding the poorest communities”); - a programme targeting citizens to counter disposals of plastic; - an independent assessment of all of the impacts of the exploitation of mineral and fish resources over the next five years (“if this points to current trends continuing, the high seas will be declared a protected area by the international community, in order to allow it to regenerate”). (LC)