Adessium Foundation promotes responsible use and management of the oceans by funding partner organizations that work on: -Combating overfishing -Stimulating the establishment of Marine Protected Areas -Preventing marine litter in particular plastics It’s partner organizations engage in 1) advocacy to support the development of effective public policy, 2) analysis and investigation into real life practices and its implications to inform the public debate, 3) management, monitoring and enforcement, 4) connecting with industry and other stakeholders to enable them use the oceans in a sustainable way.
Adessium Foundation congratulates the GOC with its proposals. They provide an actionable roadmap to coordinate international actions and turn around the current path of depletion of our seas towards a path of sustainable use of the oceans, benefitting both people and nature.
Setting IMO mandatory numbers for large fishing vessels, banning at-sea transshipment, ratifying and implementing international fisheries and labour treaties. Creating greater collaboration with industry and other stakeholders.
Setting time-bound plastic reduction targets while creating incentives to promote recycling and producer responsibility. Restricting or banning certain unsustainable uses, encouraging substitute materials and better recycling systems.
Setting up a High Seas Regeneration Zone where regional fishery management organizations have not taken such action. Ensuring that fish stocks are replenished, as well as equitably and sustainably shared for present and future generations.
Illegal fishing severely undermines all existing conservation and management measures in place for fish stocks. It costs the global economy between US$10 and US$23.5 billion a year, and is largely carried out by vessels from a handful of countries that do not adhere to or comply with international regulations.
Poor countries, which do not have the capacity to monitor their waters and whose vital resources diminish because of illegal pillage, are the worst affected. Illegal fishing is also linked to other forms of criminality as fishing vessels can also be used for smuggling people, drugs and weapons. The illegality of the practice needs to be established, the likelihood of being caught and sanctioned needs to be increased, and illegally caught fish must be prevented from entering markets.
In order to combat and end illegal fishing, the Global Ocean Commission is calling for:
Plastics are a major source of pollution on the high seas and constitute a health threat to both people and the environment. Debris entangles or suffocates seabirds, turtles and marine mammals, and plastic microparticles bio-accumulate, poisoning fish and entering the food chain.
Over 80% of the plastics found in the ocean come from the land, reflecting very poor and irresponsible waste management. However, political and regulatory action is lacking and consumers are not sufficiently aware of the problem.
World plastics production is estimated to increase by over 100 times based on 2010 production levels, from 270 million in 2010 to 33 billion in 2050, a percentage of which will end up in the ocean unless preventative action is taken.
Once it is in the ocean, plastic is very hard to remove, therefore the Commission is calling for coordinated action by governments, the private sector and civil society to stop plastics entering the ocean in the first place. Proposed actions include:
Establishing time-bound quantitative reduction targets;
Creating incentives to promote recycling and extend producer responsibility.
Restricting or banning certain unsustainable uses (e.g. disposable plastic bags and polyurethane packaging);
Encouraging the promotion and innovation of substitute materials and better recycling systems;
Increasing consumer awareness.
The Commission is also concerned about plastics pollution from sea-based sources, notably the problem of lost and abandoned fishing gear. Tens of thousands of fish aggregation devices (FADs) are used by the tuna fishing industry alone; many of them are eventually discarded or lost at sea.
The Commission proposes that all deployed FADs be documented, and that each new FAD from now on be made up of natural fibres and equipped with a tracking device. To discourage their abandonment at sea, the Commission also calls for port disposal programmes that encourage the safe, cost-effective disposal of used fishing gear. The use of natural biodegradable materials in fishing gear should also be promoted.
The Commission recognises that continued scientific findings are necessary to evaluate the cumulative impacts of human activities on the high seas so that informed decisions can be made about reversing the degradation of the global ocean. This said, the precautionary principle tells us that a lack of scientific information cannot be a reason for inaction by the international community if we are to ensure the health of the global ocean.
We are convinced that our proposals, if implemented, would reverse the cycle of degradation. But there is a long history of good proposals not being implemented. If this happens, and the result is the continued decline of the high seas, it will impact the whole ocean and people and systems across the planet because of the specific regenerative capacity of the high seas.
We are concerned to ensure that if the health of the global ocean does not improve, then consequences should follow to save this vital natural resource. The Global Ocean Accountability Board should provide independent monitoring of progress. If it reports continued decline after a period of, say, five years or similarly short period of time, then the world community of States should consider turning the high seas – with the exception of those areas where RFMO action is effective – into a regeneration zone where industrial fishing is prevented. Such action would need to take account of RFMO functions within EEZs; and would need to include provision for the ban to be lifted as effective proposals for resource management are put in place for the conservation and management of living resources in the respective areas. The objective of this trigger mechanism and the associated regeneration zone concept is to make fish stocks sustainable for present and future generations, and to replenish ocean life equitably to secure the wellbeing of this global commons for the health of the planet, its people and its biodiversity.