We know it’s already February, but as it’s the first Navigator of 2019, we would like to wish all our readers and Ocean friends around the world a very Happy New Year. This year promises lots of opportunities to advance ocean protection, with high expectations for finally getting to grips with eliminating damaging fishing subsidies, plans to stage the first ‘Blue Climate COP’, and the next wave of high stakes High Seas Treaty negotiations getting underway. This really is the year that will make or break global efforts to meet SDG14 2020 targets.
January certainly began with a bang with warnings about the state of the Ocean. An article just published calculates that the current rate of Ocean warming is equivalent to about 5 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs exploding every second... mind-blowing. 2018 was declared the hottest year ever for the global Ocean and warming in Antarctica is a clear threat. But, with heat records constantly being broken, scientists are worried that they are beginning to sound like broken records themselves. Luckily, they’re telling us there’s still time to act, but it's a test of wills not ability.
This is why it’s vital that in 2019 the Ocean is finally recognized as a critical part of the climate story and solution. This sardine-packed issue of The Navigator gives plenty of cause for optimism on that front as we look forward to a high-level Ocean-Climate conference in Brussels, a new push for Antarctic marine protection, and the Ocean at last taking its place at the table at the UNFCCC.
Seen from the Lighthouse– what's happening now?
Chile leads the way in Antarctic marine protection
In January, President Piñera of Chile invited the Antarctica2020team, a group of high-level leaders from around the world, to meet with him to discuss Chile’s plans to take a leading role in promoting protection of the Southern Ocean, and to learn more about his goal to make the upcoming UNFCCC COP25 in Chile the first ‘Blue COP’. Three Antarctica2020 champions – José María Figueres, Sylvia Earle and Pascal Lamy – were also lucky enough to join the President on a special trip to Antarctica on 12January with a delegation of politicians, scientists and press. This trip really helped cement the commitment of the Chilean Government to work together with Antarctica2020 to secure Southern Ocean protections at the 2019 CCAMLR meeting, in time for the 200th anniversary of Antarctica’s discovery in 2020. Read this interview with Sylvia Earle (in Spanish) to find out more.
Deep-sea destruction continues
The annual meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) caused deep dismay on 27th January when it adopted a deep-sea fisheries regulation that allows New Zealand vessels to carry on bottom trawling on high seas biodiversity hotspots on seamounts and deep mountain ridge systems. New Zealand bottom trawl vessels have dragged up many tonnes of corals and other vulnerable deep-sea species over the past 10 years, and the SPRFMO just gave them license to carry on destroying (who doesn’t remember the iconic 2005 Greenpeace photograph of a huge gorgonian coral being hauled up and thrown over the side of a New Zealand vessel, dead?). Fast forward to January 2019 and not much has changed: one of New Zealand's most notorious bottom trawl companies is being accused of illegal trawling in a protected area of the Tasman Sea and faces 14 charges of breaching high seas fishing permits. The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition criticized SPRFMO's “deeply flawed” regulation, saying it “runs completely counter to resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly since 2006.” But – watch this space – EU concerns mean the regulation will be scrutinized and hopefully amended at the next SPRMFO meeting.
Japan to resume commercial whaling
It finally did it … after years of threatening, Japan confirmed on 26th December 2018 that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Since a moratorium on commercial whaling was agreed by the Commission in 1982, Japan has argued over the years that commercial whaling should be allowed to resume, as some stocks of whales have recovered sufficiently. At the last IWC meeting Japan hinted at plans to withdraw its membership after its proposal to restart whaling was rejected.
Japan’s announcement has sparked condemnation from governments and environmental organizations around the world, with some saying Japan’s withdrawal from IWC was primarily a political move to show that it can use the ocean however it pleases. Crucially, while Japan says its move means it can now start whaling in its own waters, it will no longer be able to exploit IWC’s exemption for scientific/research whaling exemption in international waters or anywhere else.
World Oceans Day 2019
The theme for this year’s UN World Oceans Day is ‘Gender and Oceans’. Find out more about plans for 8th June 2019 and register your events here.
Small grants for sharks
The Shark Conservation Fund opens its 2019 round of small grants applications on 4th February. Read more here about which projects are eligible.
Canada’s marine refuges falling short SeaBlue Canada, a coalition of 6 conservation organizations, has declared that more than half of Canada’s marine refuges – some of which Canada itself helped establish – are failing to meet international protection standards and need upgrading if they are to truly protect biodiversity.
Brussels calling for Ocean-Climate commitment
The Government of Belgium is inviting ministers, international organizations and other Ocean leaders to an international conference on Climate Change and Oceans Preservation in Brussels on 19th February. Participants will take stock of current issues and be encouraged to sign the Brussels Declaration to reaffirm commitments to future generations. This meeting is another welcome sign that governments are recognizing the important role of the Ocean-Climate connection and are serious about the need to find solutions.
2019 – The year to end fisheries subsidies?
WTO members now have less than 12 months to negotiate and adopt an agreement to address harmful fisheries subsidies if they are to meet their end-2019 deadline. Members are shifting proceedings up a gear into full-on ‘negotiating mode’; they’ve formed brainstorming ‘incubator’ groups to generate fresh ideas; and will meet again from 25 February to 1 March for the next cluster of meetings. The problem is well documented. Every year, governments spend between $18–20 billion on harmful fisheries subsidies.
These exacerbate the overcapacity and overfishing that is stripping the ocean of precious fish stocks and, in some cases, even support illegal fishing that causes $23 billion worth of fish being stolen every year. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 14.6 commits states to eliminating these subsidies by 2020: it is crunch time. After 2 decades of dithering, will the WTO meet its New Year’s resolution and – as UN Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson hopes – make 2019 the year to end harmful fisheries subsidies? The Navigator will be watching …
Building Ocean Bridges
This year’s The Economist 2019 World Ocean Summit in Abu Dhabi (5–7th March) will be about ‘Building Bridges’. Participants will focus on: finance, including new blue carbon systems; technology and innovation, such as aquaculture and waste management; and governance, including illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Check out this video to get a taster of what’s up for discussion and why the Summit is being held in Abu Dhabi.
Environment ministers will have a chance to take stock of the work needed in 2019 and commit to rolling up their sleeves and working together to take bold and ambitious actions to save our planet.
Next round of High Seas Treaty negotiations
The 2nd session of the International Conference charged with negotiating a new UN treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) will take place at the UN in New York from 25th March to 5th April. This is the 2nd of 4 sessions scheduled to drive the process forward to meet its tight deadline of 2020. A President's Aid to Negotiations has just been released to help focus the discussions and is a useful guide to the status of talks on key issues like high seas MPAs, benefits sharing, and the transfer of marine technology. But it also shows there’s still a lot of work ahead, and no doubt late nights and liters of coffee to be had, before they can hopefully finalize a strong, legally binding treaty to protect half the planet and end lawlessness on the high seas by 2020. No pressure, guys!
UN policy junkies, please check out the High Seas Alliance Treaty Tracker, which will keep you up to date with discussions in and outside of one UN Plaza.
Making waves at Davos
The Ocean also got a good look-in at Davos this year, with a Friends of Ocean Action3-day event at the World Economic Forum covering everything from IUU fishing and species extinction to unlocking investments and decarbonization of shipping. Among the most important Ocean announcements at Davos came from Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who called for nations to agree an obligatory action framework to tackle plastic marine pollution at the G20 Summit in Osaka in June.
Big business taking on marine plastic
Plastic, plastic everywhere … from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it was even found at the bottom of Belize’s Blue Hole during a recent dive. Governments and companies are starting to recognize that they need to turn off the plastic tap ASAP. It’s not rocket science – the most effective way to have less plastic in the Ocean is to use less plastic in the first place. While recycling and clean-up are important, the key solution is for companies to urgently introduce alternative sustainable packaging. That said, here are some of the latest plastic initiatives:
Industry giant Nestlé became the latest partner to join Project STOP – a government and industry-led partnership that aims to stop plastic leaking into the ocean in Southeast Asia (a region with a huge plastic pollution footprint). As the first food company to join the project, Nestlé has committed to making 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
A group of nearly 30 major companies including ExxonMobil, Shell Chemical, Dow, and Procter and Gamble launched the Alliance to End Plastic Waste on 15th January. But, though the Alliance pledges $1 billion dollars toward plastic recycling and cleanup, campaigners have described it as “too little, too late” as it fails to address the industry’s massive scale up of plastic production. Stark choices for life on Earth
The 3,800 participants at CBD COP14 in November 2018 were warned by the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Executive Secretary – after an onslaught of devastating reports – that they have two choices: either stay on today’s destructive path or actively pursue restoration and transformation. Governments have less than 2 years to meet the Aichi biodiversity targets that they committed to achieve by 2020. For the Ocean this includes minimizing harm to coral reefs, ensuring all fish stocks are managed sustainably, and for countries to protect 10% of their waters. If they take their commitments seriously, governments need to supercharge their actions.
Governments are starting to discuss the priorities for biodiversity beyond 2020 as the current targets are not enough to ensure a healthy Planet in the long-term. The meeting agreed a process on developing a high-ambition Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework that will be finalized in China next year. For the Ocean, it is essential to push the 30x30 marine protection target, which is the level of strong protection science shows is needed for us to ensure a healthy ocean. The meeting also recommended for the UN General Assembly to designate 2021 to 2030 as the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.
The Ocean elevated at Climate Talks
Delegates at UNFCCC COP24 in Poland agreed on the Katowice Climate Package – a 'rulebook' for putting the Paris Climate Agreement into action – but kicked some tricky elements into the long grass after tense discussions and a failure to agree on carbon credits pushed the talks into overtime. The key outcome of Ocean Action Day was a stronger commitment to include the Ocean on the UNFCCC agenda and highlight it in climate negotiations. With Chile at the helm of the next COP, we have high hopes that the Ocean will seep permanently onto the UNFCCC’s agenda. This will no doubt be boosted by the publication of the IPPC’sSpecial Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, which The Navigator will be eagerly awaiting later this year, even though we fear it will not be the bearer of good news.
