Growing threats to world’s oceans

Shocking extent of threats to ocean health revealed in new Greenpeace report

‘Fishing hours’ increased by 8.5% on the high seas 2018-2022

Increase was over 22% in areas most in need of protection

UK urged to sign Global Ocean Treaty next week

The number of hours spent fishing in international waters has increased dramatically in the last few years, according to a major new analysis of threats facing our blue planet. It found that the time industrial vessels spent fishing on the high seas rose to over 8.5 million hours last year – 8.5% higher than in 2018.

It comes a week before the UK and other governments are set to sign the historic Global Ocean Treaty at the United Nations in New York (20 September).

The Greenpeace report 30×30: From Global Ocean Treaty to Protection at Sea sets out a political roadmap to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 – the UN’s 30×30 target – using the new Ocean Treaty that was agreed earlier this year.

It details the growing threats facing the oceans and includes a new global analysis of fishing activity: Between 2018 and 2022, apparent fishing activity in the high seas rose by 8.5% to nearly 8.5 million hours – an increase of 662,483 hours. Drifting longlines make up over three-quarters of all recorded fishing activity – a destructive method that results in high levels of bycatch.

The rise in fishing activity was even higher (22.5%) in areas of the ocean that scientists have identified as being most in need of protection. The report includes a foreword by Professor Callum Roberts, whose groundbreaking modelling provided the basis for the original 30×30 Blueprint for Ocean Protection.

As well as fishing, the report also details how ocean warming, acidification, pollution and the emerging threat of deep sea mining are placing ever more strain on ocean ecosystems, making clear the urgency of political action to deliver 30×30 using the Ocean Treaty.

Fiona Nicholls of Greenpeace’s Protect the Oceans campaign said:

“The Ocean Treaty was a historic win for nature but as our report shows, the threats to marine life worsen every day. The Treaty gives us a powerful tool to protect the oceans, but now Foreign Secretary James Cleverly must set an example to other governments by urgently signing and ratifying it. For all of our sakes, leaders must use the Treaty to urgently create new ocean sanctuaries on the high seas that give our oceans and all the life within them a fighting chance.”

Greenpeace has partnered with the film actors Simon Pegg and Jane Fonda, and with the US singer and actor Camila Cabello, to produce an animated short film, available here. The animation follows the journey of three sea creatures as they escape the threats detailed in this report to find an ocean sanctuary.

Fully or highly protected ocean sanctuaries, which can be established under the Treaty, are a solution to the ocean and climate crisis. They provide a safe haven for marine life, free from human pressures, helping fish populations recover.

Currently, less than 1% of the high seas are properly protected and to reach the 30×30 target, around 11 million square kilometres (4.3m square miles) of ocean must be protected every year – more than the surface of the UK and Canada combined.

Fiona Nicholls continued:

“Destructive industrial practices at sea threaten the future of ocean health and by extension, the future health of our whole planet. To give marine life a chance, at least 30% of the oceans must be protected in a network of ocean sanctuaries by 2030 – we have just seven years left. Countries serious about ocean protection must sign the Ocean Treaty next week at the UN General Assembly and ensure that it is ratified as soon as possible.”

Greenpeace’s report outlines the political steps and actions necessary to establish these ocean sanctuaries using the Treaty. It recommends three specific sites on the high seas to be among the first set of ocean sanctuaries, due to their ecological significance: the Emperor Seamounts in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic ocean and the South Tasman Sea/Lord Howe Rise between Australia and New Zealand.

The UK, as a signatory of the Hamilton Declaration, would be well placed to champion a future Sargasso Sea marine protected area proposal.