Source: WWF
07 May 2007, Renaca, Chile – A landmark agreement has been reached to end high seas bottom trawling, one of the world’s most destructive fishing practices, in nearly a quarter of the world’s oceans.
The deal, made at an international fisheries meeting in Chile by some 20 countries, including the majority of the world’s high seas fishing nations, seeks to protect marine life and vulnerable ecosystems in a huge area of the oceans — from Australia to South America and from the Equator to the Antarctic.
“The agreement is a great leap forward for halting the decline in ocean biodiversity and establishing good fisheries management on the high seas,” said Alistair Graham, High Seas Policy Advisor at WWF International.
The agreement will exclude bottom trawling from high seas areas where vulnerable ecosystems are likely or known to occur, until an impact assessment is undertaken and until precautionary measures to prevent destruction of marine life, such as vulnerable fish stocks, cold water corals and sponges, are implemented.
Observers will also be required on all high seas bottom trawlers to ensure that regulations are followed. The cost of these observers is to be borne by the fishing vessel. This, together with rising fuel prices, and the requirement to conduct research and assessments of the fisheries, will increase the cost of fishing and may well render high seas bottom trawling uneconomic and effectively lead to its end.
The deal goes into force on 30 September, well ahead of a deadline set by the UN General Assembly to halt bottom trawling in areas not covered by competent fisheries management organizations by the end of 2007.
The meeting was less successful with regards to open water fisheries. Important stocks of squid and mackerel are fished in the area. Some of these stocks are feeling the brunt of high fishing levels. Chilean jack mackerel, one of the economically most important fisheries in the South Pacific, has been reported as fully exploited. WWF is very concerned that the agreed interim measures to protect the pelagic mackerel stock while an agreement is being finalized are inadequate.
“If mackerel stocks are allowed to be overfished, the ecological, social and economic impacts would be serious, especially for dependent local communities and for species such as tuna and swordfish that feed upon mackerel,” Alistair Graham said.
As we step into 2020, time has come to implement the Paris Agreement and raise climate ambition, but the geopolitical tide seems to be against it. The best way forward at this crucial juncture might be to forge a ‘climate coalition of the willing’ – recognising and streamlining actions of all actors at all levels.
For the first time in the survey’s 10-year outlook, the top five global risks in terms of likelihood are all environmental. They are: extreme weather events, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, major natural disasters, major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and human-made environmental damage and disasters.
Millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa could face grave hunger in the first half of 2020 because of armed conflict, political instability and climate change-linked disasters, a report says.
The report published by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) this month says that the countries affected will require life-saving food assistance and investment to prevent humanitarian catastrophes.
Australia is currently experiencing one of its worst bushfire seasons, with swathes of the southern and eastern coastal regions having been ablaze for weeks. As the fires have spread, there has been extensive media coverage both nationally and internationally documenting – and debating – their impacts. This Carbon Brief overview summarises how the fires – and the political response to them – have been covered by the media.