Source: Stuff.co.nz
Author: Andrea Vance
Vast fishing nets have hauled up 29 species of delicate coral from the still, dark depths of New Zealand’s oceans.
And conservationists are warning that the Government has abandoned protection of the sea bed in favour of expanding bottom trawling.
The South Pacific regional fisheries management organization (SPRFMO) held its fourth Commission meeting in Valdivia, Chile from January 25-29.
The second Commission meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) took place in Manta, Ecuador from 27-31 January.
The DSCC welcomes the approach towards transparency that SPRFMO negotiations have taken to date, both within the meetings and by publicising and reviewing impact assessments, and informed them that they look forward to a continuance of transparency now that the Convention is in force.
At the opening of the 8th Annual Meeting of of the South Pacific RFMO in Auckland (8-14th November) the DSCC made the following statement:
Update on the implementation of UN GA Res/61/105 With the sustainable fisheries negotiations resuming next week, below is a compilation of the latest news from recent RFMO meetings and their progress towards implementation of UNGA Resolution 61/105 paragraphs 83-86 on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems from high seas bottom fishing.
A meeting to discuss the establishment of a South Pacific RFMO was held from 6 – 10 October, 2008 in Canberra, Australia
Continue reading South Pacific States Move Closer to a Regional Fisheries Agreement
Since our last update in April, there is much to report with regard to protection of biodiversity in deep-sea ecosystems on the high seas. To name a few highlights: NAFO agreed on measures to implement provisions in the UNGA Sustainable Fisheries Resolution (61/105) on high seas bottom fishing; the 9th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity endorsed scientific criteria that will be important for establishing marine protected areas in the high seas; the FAO has published an updated draft of the international guidelines for managing deep-sea fisheries and the high seas (to be finalized in August); and countries are beginning to implement interim measures in the South Pacific. The DSCC is encouraged by progress in some areas towards meeting the obligations set out in 61/105, though the devil will be in the implementation details.
Recently touted as headline news around the world was the fact that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by a thread.” This news from Antarctica is the latest in an increasingly worrying string of stories about melting polar ice caps and the effects of climate change on global oceans, declining fish stocks, the devastation of bottom trawling, and the total human impact on the world’s oceans (see below a collection of media reports on the latest scientific findings).
The Southern Pacific ocean was today one step closer to the protection of its deep-sea ecosystems as the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) meeting in New Caledonia ended. With the world’s major fishing nations striving to protect the South Pacific by implementing the 2006 UN General Assembly Resolution on deep-sea ecosystems, the spotlight now turns to the North West Atlantic. NAFO, the RFMO responsible for the North West Atlantic, meets in Portugal from 24 – 28 September.
Continue reading Deep Sea Protection – Stage Set For The North To Follow Suit
