Great indaba of the high seas

Great indaba of the high seas
By John Yeld in the Cape Argus, 25 March 2013
Cape Town – IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) fishing is just one of many difficult topics that the commission will be grappling with during the next 12 months as it prepares to make substantive recommendations on how to reverse the decades-long degradation of the world’s oceans and restore their ecological health, with huge implications for global food security. Other recommendations are likely to include how to revitalise the 31-year-old UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
The high-powered commission has just one year to complete its work, with its recommendations due to be fed into the UN General Assembly discussions on protecting high seas biodiversity – a commitment made at the international Rio+20 summit last year.
“Part of what they wanted, I suppose, was a group of commissioners who would have the ability to be heard, without any pretence of being ocean scientists,” Trevor Manuel explained. “And we’ve now put together a commission and it’s actually extremely exciting.”
Part of the commission’s work would involve looking at “certain gaps and omissions” in management of the high seas since Unclos was signed in 1982.
“Movement over the last 25 or 30 years in this area has been very encouraging, but what you have is a convention and an agreement about what happens in the oceans, but not much oversight.”
Manuel agreed that IUU fishing was a major challenge, but pointed out that the behavioural change necessary to bring it to a halt was possible – particularly because the technology to track fishing vessels was available.
“The problem, of course, as we see from the behaviour of vessel owners – and a case in point would be the Seli 1 that they’re demolishing at Blaauwberg – is that when people are making money from sailing rust buckets, they feel no compunction about rules.
“I think that what will need to happen, even in an environment of so many ships flying flags of convenience, is that there will have to be an entirely different regime.
“And it’s very important that we deal with how we can affect behaviour – we spoke about this at the brief meeting that we had in December.
“I said, ‘You know, not too long ago we all smoked in our offices, and in movies and in restaurants – it would be very strange to see any of that kind of behaviour now’.
“Behavioural change is possible because these changes have happened in our lifetimes. You can effect behavioural change if there’s political will, and the rules are understood and the intentions are clear.
“So if we want to preserve the ocean and its bounty for successive generations, we’re going to have to act now. And if leaders are not in the zone for a whole variety of reasons, I think what the commission must try to do is to get this on to the agenda of decision-making.”
Another issue that the commission would discuss was mining or extracting oil from beneath the seabed outside countries’ 200-nautical mile (360km) exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
This shifted the debate, Manuel said, adding that when mining or extracting outside of the EEZ, policing was also a big issue. “We saw what happened in the Arctic when the different countries went in there to plant flags – I think it’s a very dangerous development.”
There were also physical and biodiversity issues to consider, such as changing toxicity levels and acidification of seawater.
“And then ultimately we’re also dealing with the impacts of climate change where temperature changes to the water, and possible variations to sea levels, will also impact on biodiversity, etcetera, etcetera. So there is a whole range of issues for us to think about.”
Manuel said he was “very encouraged” by the number of commissioners who had arrived in Cape Town, and that the secretariat was “very well prepared”.
“I’m sure we’re going to get a good basis to take the work forward. To get through the hoop of putting something substantive on the table of the UN by next year, I think we’re going to need a big, big push.”
In a statement, Manuel’s co-chairman Miliband said the high seas were “clearly out of sight, and too often they are out of mind as well.
“The area of the high seas adds up to almost half of the Earth’s surface, and it’s unthinkable that we can allow such a vast, economically productive region to continue being ‘out of mind’.”
==============================
Global commission to aid ‘ocean reform’
by John Yeld in the Cape Argus, 27 March 2013

________________________________________

Cape Town – The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has been successful in regulating merchant shipping and various other maritime areas, say legal specialists.
But it has been much less successful in conserving the biodiversity of the oceans and in helping to maximise economic returns from global “high seas” fishing, the specialists said.
According to a statement issued by the commission after its meeting, there is a “watertight case” for reforming the way the high seas are governed and managed, backed up by evidence from the fields of economics, science, equity and public opinion.
Problems drawn to its attention at the meeting included poor fisheries practices, inequalities in access to ocean resources, and continuing damage to marine life.
Referring to the experts’ opinion on the UN convention on the law of the sea, Miliband said: “When you look at the way the high seas are governed and managed, you see a system that is seriously fragmented and, in some important ways, simply out of date.
“On land, when we look around the world, we see how crucial good governance is for economies and for the environment, and the high seas are no different. Reform is imperative.”

Swakopmund Matters