by Ten years ago, I stood with then United States Secretary of State John Kerry in the magnificent Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC to discuss an issue we both cherish: the state of the world’s oceans.
Before that week in 2014, no one had gathered world leaders, funders, non-profits, and academics under one roof to spend time solving some of the biggest threats facing our oceans.
That changed when Secretary Kerry created Our Ocean – an annual international conference that will meet this week, for the ninth time, in Athens, Greece.
International meetings can be difficult and frustrating, often ending in stalemates on important decisions.
There is no kicking the can down the road at Ár Aegéan. Real progress is being made, ending each annual meeting with a healthier path forward for the oceans.
Since 2014, the Our Ocean conference has implemented over 2,160 commitments worth approximately $130 billion (€122.5bn) and protected more than 5 million square miles (13 million square kilometres) of ocean.
Last year’s conference in Panama ended with only 360 commitments, including an announcement by the Panamanian government that it would protect more than 54% of its oceans.
One of my favorite announcements was at the 2016 Our Ocean conference when Sec. Kerry helped Oceana, SkyTruth, and Google unveil Global Fishing Watch to the world – a first-of-its-kind technology platform that enables anyone to see and track the activity of commercial fishing vessels in near real time – for free.
Global Fishing Watch is now working to map all human activity at sea. What a powerful tool.
Too fishy and overloaded
These commitments are necessary because our oceans face many threats. Half of the world’s fisheries are overfished and another 40% are fished to maximum levels.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is also a major threat that depletes ocean resources, destroys habitats, and is even linked to forced labor and other human rights abuses.
Nearly 33 billion pounds (15 billion kilograms) of plastic pollution enter the oceans each year – the equivalent of two garbage trucks full of plastic being dumped into the oceans every minute.
The oceans are also under the pressure of climate change, absorbing more than 90% of all excess heat trapped on Earth, contributing to impacts such as coral bleaching, warming ocean temperatures, and rising sea levels. sea.
It’s safe to say we’ve put the oceans through a lot. And he takes bold action to counter these harsh consequences. Fortunately, Our Ocean is where we can chart a course forward.
From plastic to overfishing, our affairs are grim and long
First, world leaders must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by halting the expansion of new offshore drilling and transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Corporate polluters must be held accountable for the pollution they create and the harm it causes to the oceans, and that means reducing the production and use of unnecessary single-use plastics.
To curb overfishing, governments must establish science-based management plans and catch limits at the national level.
But if we want to save the oceans and help feed the world, it’s not just about who catches the most fish but also which fish need them the most. We need to make sure that the local catch is supporting local people and not being turned into food for farmed pigs or salmon.
We must also continue to make progress towards the global commitment to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030, an ambitious goal that will preserve ocean biodiversity for generations to come.
In doing so, we should ensure that these protected areas prevent destructive activities such as bottom trawling, which can erode the seabed.
A worldwide victory is happening
Although these may seem like momentous undertakings, in the past year we have seen so many victories for our oceans, including the creation of several new marine protected areas (MPAs) such as Bajos del Norte National Park in the Gulf of Mexico, a new MPA that protects Chile’s iconic Humboldt Archipelago, and two new MPAs here in the Mediterranean.
Belize passed a historic “People Power” law that requires any decision to open its oceans to oil and gas drilling to be voted on first by the people of Belize through a national referendum.
The European Union has increased transparency at sea, creating a new database that reveals the activities of EU vessels fishing outside EU waters.
The EU also requires all its fishing vessels, including 49,000 small-scale vessels, to have tracking systems.
And with its new sanctions system, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean can now penalize States that fail to tackle overfishing or illegal fishing by their fleets.
A new law in Peru has strengthened protections for the entire first five nautical miles of its coast (one of the most productive ocean areas in the world) reserved exclusively for commercial fishermen.
And in Brazil, following a 2018 law that targeted artisanal fishermen, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on bottom trawling along the coast of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, where more than 20,000 families depend on artisanal fishing. their livelihoods.
This is just a short list of recent achievements from around the world.
I want to thank Secretary Kerry for being the catalyst for the wave of ocean activism over the past 10 years since the first Our Ocean conference. His vision for a healthy, restored ocean helped bring the world together to tackle these challenges head on.
If I have learned one thing from him, it is that there is still hope for the oceans and the future of our planet. The world could use more leaders like him today.
Ted Danson is an award-winning actor and an Oceana board member.
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