During a pristine ocean expedition to the Deswwinde Islands, a flock of Guy-like bulbophyllums approaches the camera. Photograph by ENRIC SALA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PRISTINE SEAS
Written by: LAURA PARKER
The Marine Conservation Campaign is supported by more than 70 countries and aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030. While the sport is ambitious, it has so far had little success: only 7 percent of the oceans are protected and 2.7 percent are highly protected.
"The idea of 'protecting 30% of the world's oceans by 2030' is too optimistic," said Patricia Majluf, a Peruvian fisheries scientist. In the face of strong opposition from fisheries agencies, she has been working to establish a deep-sea protected area in Peru. Less than 0.5 percent of Peru's offshore waters are protected. The proposed Nazca Ridge Marine Reserve is located on an undersea mountain range stretching from the Peruvian coast to the Pacific Ocean and is expected to be approved this spring. By then, Peru's protected waters will be expanded to 8%.
Fishermen say it is difficult for developing countries in South America and elsewhere to give up nearly a third of the ocean. Opposition to the massive expansion of mpAS is heard around the world, with growing divergences between natural resource conservationists and fisheries interests as fishing declines, coupled with increased populations, leads to increased demand for seafood.
The study, published March 18 in the journal Nature, aims to dramatically change that narrative. Studies have shown that protecting 30 per cent of the ocean not only restores the species diversity of marine habitats, but also increases catches by 8 million tonnes per year, equivalent to 10 per cent today. And there's an added benefit: Doing so reduces the deep-sea carbon emissions that trawlers bring to the ocean and tackles climate change with "cheap, natural solutions."
"The only way to get more food out of the ocean is to protect more ocean," said Lead Author Marine Ecologist and Resident Explorer of the National Geographic Society, "Catches have been declining since the mid-1990s, and protecting the oceans will benefit us forever." The National Geographic Society partially funded the study.
Targeted protection
For the study, an international team of 26 scientists analyzed the world's unprotected seas, calculating which ones were threatened by overfishing, habitat destruction and carbon emissions. The research team, which includes economists and marine and climate scientists, mapped protected area sites around the world that could maximize the benefits for fish stocks, biodiversity and climate.
St. Joseph's Atoll is a nature reserve with a marine protected area. Photographed by THOMAS P. PESCHAK, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
The scientists say the findings build a framework that countries can use to address three major challenges, either individually or together, depending on priorities. A complete solution to these three problems requires the protection of at least 30 per cent of the ocean. But countries can focus on protecting key areas, and global cooperation to create strategic protected areas can do more than individually.
Carbon emissions
The study is the first attempt to analyze the possible impact of carbon dioxide emissions from seabed trawling and dredging on scallop invertebrates. According to the study, marine sediments are the "largest reservoir of organic carbon" on Earth and key to long-term carbon storage.
When heavy fishing nets drag across the ocean floor, churning sediment and releasing carbon, "this can exacerbate ocean acidification," the study said, while reducing the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air, increasing the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere and leading to global warming.
Sala and colleagues acknowledge that it is not yet known how much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase as a result of undersea trawling, but they say that because there are not many trawlers globally, protecting 3.6 percent of the ocean could eliminate 90 percent of the risk. The places most vulnerable to carbon emissions are on the continental shelf, including China's exclusive economic zone, Europe's Atlantic coastal region, and Peru's Nasca Ridge.
The Un Convention on Biological Diversity conference, which will be held in Kunming, China, in October, is a proposal for greater global cooperation on marine conservation. The United Nations hopes that 190 countries will sign an agreement on biodiversity to achieve the plan to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.
"That's one of the reasons we do this," said Sala, head of the National Geographic Society's Original Oceans Program, "and we need to have enough scientific evidence that no political means can interfere." Right now, we are in a phase of diminishing returns. The oceans can't absorb the effects we've had and can't keep up with our speed. We need to give the ocean more space so it can continue to provide everything for us and other life on Earth. ”
Scientists say most of the so-called priority conservation sites are located within the exclusive economic zones of coastal states, 370.4 kilometers from the coast. The high seas are governed by international law, and the few marine protected areas established on the high seas can also bring significant benefits to habitat restoration and fish populations, including the Muskrin Deep Sea Plateau in the Indian Ocean, the Southwest Indian Ocean Ridge between Africa and Antarctica, and two huge underwater mountains: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Nazca Ridge in Peru.
The most abundant waters in the world
The Nazca Ridge is an underwater chain of volcanic activity, and protecting it means protecting the diversity of species in the most fertile waters on Earth. The Nazca Ridge is home to deep-sea sharks, breeding grounds for swordfish and horse mackerel, and a stop and breeding ground for blue whales on their migration journeys. More than 40% of the fish and invertebrates that live in and around the ridge are unique here. Selected areas of the new MPAs, which are threatened, endangered and in diminished, are fragile and are slowly recovering from human infestations.
The proposed marine protected areas are nearly 70,000 square kilometers, accounting for 7.3% of Peruvian waters. Majluf, vice president of Peru to Oceana, a nonprofit environmental group, said that if the antarctic fishing of small-scaled canine toothfish were open, it would cause damage to the submarine mountains, and protecting the area could prevent such damage. The Antarctic fish is a Chilean sea bass that fishermen fish with long undersea trawls, and currently catch less than 7 per cent of the annual catch in the proposed protected area.
Majluf said protecting the Nazca Ridge would also help prevent Chinese fleets from entering Peruvian waters to catch squid. She was not involved in the study.
If the Nazca Ridge Marine Protected Area is finalized, Peru will have only 2 percent of its waters committed to protecting 10 percent. "Our future plans are to establish small marine protected areas close to the coast and address the problems posed by other human activities," Majluf said. ”
(Translator: Sky4)