- Title: Ocean pollution risks "collapse and extinction" of marine life: Greenpeace
- Date: 9th August 2019
- Summary: AT SEA, SARGASSO SEA (JULY 31, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARLO HEMPHILL, SENIOR OCEANS CAMPAIGNER, GREENPEACE USA SAYING: "If you take any particular country in the world, whether that's the United States or Russia or Japan or Bermuda, there's laws that if there's a special reef or a special place that whales are migrating, that country could create a marine protected area or an ocean sanctuary. But if you want to do the same thing in the high seas there's no international legal framework to do that. So it doesn't matter if it's really the most special place in the world for whales or for deep sea coral reefs or like we have here in the Sargasso Sea, the floating seaweed, there's nothing, there's no law, there's no legal framework that countries could say 'this is so special we need to protect it as an ocean sanctuary'." CREW RECOVERING THE MANTA TRAWL DEVICE VARIOUS OF CREW RECOVERING PARTICLES COLLECTED DURING MANTA TRAWL PARTICLES COLLECTED DURING MANTA TRAWL (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARLO HEMPHILL, SENIOR OCEANS CAMPAIGNER, GREENPEACE USA SAYING: "If the UN doesn't act we risk catastrophe in the oceans, we risk collapse and extinction of multiple species of fish. We're already looking even now at losing the majority of big fish seafood by 2040. We could potentially lose whale populations that we've worked so hard to bring back from the brink throughout the 20th century and most of all we risk our human populations, especially poor coastal populations that depend on fish protein for food."
- Embargoed: 23rd August 2019 10:10
- Keywords: climate change climate emergency plastic plastic pollution Greenpeace Sargasso Sea Atlantic Ocean
- Location: AT SEA, SARGASSO SEA / INTERNET
- City: AT SEA, SARGASSO SEA / INTERNET
- Country: At Sea
- Topics: Environment,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA004ARHWDAZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Sargasso Sea in the north Atlantic Ocean is a trove of biodiversity and marine life. But the pristine azure waters belie the environmental catastrophe lurking below, according to environmental campaigners.
The Sargasso is in a unique environment in the North Atlantic gyre, a whirlpool-like circular ocean current that draws in and traps debris from Africa, Europe and North America. Any plastic pollution sucked in is continuously broken by the churning current until it becomes microplastic; small enough to be ingested by marine life and enter the food chain.
As the United Nations prepares to meet in New York this month to continue discussions into a new Global Ocean Treaty, environmental campaign group Greenpeace is demanding they act to protect the world's oceans.
The group are backing calls to protect 30 percent of the oceans by 2030, a target called for by scientists and a growing number of governments as the minimum needed to halt the damage being done by harmful human activity.
Greenpeace is currently sailing one of their ships from pole to pole to highlight the threats to oceans, including climate change, overfishing, plastic pollution, deep sea mining and oil drilling.
The MV Esperanza is currently in the Sargasso Sea, assisting scientists to study the levels and impact of plastic pollution.
"It's quite terrifying when we're looking at this beautiful, pristine blue water and out of our eyesight is this hidden pollution of plastic that's accumulating in our oceans," Shane Antonition, a researcher at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo told Reuters on board the Esperanza.
A ten minute trawl with a specially designed 5m long net found 153 microplastic particles and a further 18 macroplastic particles.
The Greenpeace Protect the Oceans Campaign says the Sargasso Sea is a crucial spawning ground for eels and needs protecting.
"If you take any particular country in the world, whether that's the United States or Russia or Japan or Bermuda, there's laws that if there's a special reef or a special place that whales are migrating, that country could create a marine protected area or an ocean sanctuary. But if you want to do the same thing in the high seas there's no international legal framework to do that," said Arlo Hemphill, Senior Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace USA.
Greenpeace says international waters, outside territorial control, are home to marine life that drives the ocean's biological pump and helps regulate the planet's temperature.
They say sanctuaries covering 30 percent of the high seas could help the oceans recover and that the plan is feasible.
"If the U.N. doesn't act we risk catastrophe in the oceans, we risk collapse and extinction of multiple species of fish. We're already looking even now at losing the majority of big fish seafood by 2040. We could potentially lose whale populations that we've worked so hard to bring back from the brink throughout the 20th century and most of all we risk our human populations, especially poor coastal populations that depend on fish protein for food," Hemphill said.
This month's U.N. meeting will prepare the ground for final meeting to agree a global ocean treaty next year.
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