As a window on underwater life, aquariums can be an excellent tool for raising their visitors' awareness of the scale of marine pollution and of the urgent need to tackle this worldwide problem. This is what European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella said at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco on Thursday 27 July, where he kicked off the World Aquariums Against Marine Litter campaign.
Accompanying the commissioner for the launch of this international campaign were Prince Albert II of Monaco, the United Nations Environment Programme executive director Erik Solheim, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) CEO Doug Cress. Over 60 aquariums in the five continents will participate in the campaign by organising an exhibition this summer on sea pollution from rubbish.
"10 million tonnes of litter are dumped in our oceans each and every year. That is one 24 tonne rubbish truck per minute. 400 kilogrammes per second. Trillions of cigarette butts end up in the ocean each year. Each one pollutes hundreds of litres of water and takes years to break down. But the true scourge of the sea is plastic", Avramopoulos stated, adding that plastic kills one million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals every year. He also said that "by 2050, our oceans could contain more plastic than fish".
Each and every person can take action against this problem, he said. And while marine pollution "is an enormous challenge", it is, in his view, "a great opportunity to move to a more circular economy".
With the Commission preparing an EU strategy for plastic, the European ministers for the environment underlined their determination, at their last meeting in Malta on 26 April, to ensure that the EU protects the marine environment better from waste pollution, and especially from plastic pollution (see EUROPE 11775).
This campaign has been launched ahead of the 4th international conference (Our Oceans), which will be hosted for the first time by the European Commission in Malta on 5-6 October (see EUROPE 11665). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)