UN Ocean Conference: Protecting Global Waters from Destructive Fishing and Mining

Calls for Stricter Ocean Controls

• 🎣 Scientists at the UN Ocean Conference are demanding stricter controls on fishing practices, particularly bottom trawling.
• ⚠️ Footage, including from David Attenborough's work, has revealed the shocking extent of aggressive fishing even in supposedly protected marine areas.

Protecting International Waters

• 🌊 A radical proposal calls for all international waters to be protected from fishing, deep-sea mining, and the exploitation of deep-sea fish.
• 🐟 These international waters are crucial for rebuilding depleted fish stocks and supporting the ocean's ability to regulate the climate.
• 🌍 Protecting these areas is essential as industrial fishing has massively depleted fisheries over the last 40-50 years.

Food Security and Equitable Distribution

• 📊 The amount of fish caught in international waters is only about 6% of the global total, primarily benefiting high-income countries.
• 💡 There is no food security argument for fishing in international waters; exploiting these fish in sovereign waters would distribute benefits more equitably.
• 🌎 Currently, about 80% of the international catch is taken by just six countries; protecting the high seas could spread this catch across approximately 100 countries.

Seabed Carbon Stores and Climate Regulation

• 🔬 Research highlights the ocean as one of Earth's largest and most secure carbon stores, with carbon stored in seabed mud and sand.
• 💨 Bottom trawling resuspends this seabed material, causing carbon to be re-released into the atmosphere as CO2, thus accelerating climate change.
• 🔵 The oceans, referred to as the "blue lungs of the planet," absorb 25% of our CO2 emissions, underscoring the importance of protecting seabed carbon stores and fish populations.