DEEPER COMMITMENTS NEEDED TO SAFEGUARD THE OCEAN’S DEPTHS

Deeper commitments needed to safeguard the ocean’s depths.  As the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) comes to a close, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) calls on world leaders to up their ambition and take immediate action to protect the deep.

With the spotlight shining more brightly on the ocean at COP16 than previous biodiversity COPs, scientists, civil society organisations, Indigenous groups and world leaders called on negotiators not to forget the deep.

The DSCC hosted a packed side event at the COP, bringing together a range of voices and perspectives, calling for urgent action to defend the deep and protect the rich webs of life that deep-sea environments support. UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson asked the room: “How can we make sure that we now protect what we all agreed to protect?” referencing commitments made 20 years ago to protect fragile deep-sea ecosystems. Special Envoy for Climate Change and Environment for the Republic of Vanuatu, Ralph Regenvanu, added that Vanuatu has made “…strides in protecting seamounts from bottom trawling, the next challenge is deep-sea mining.”

At the event, the DSCC launched a new Seamounts Accord, calling on governments to finish the job and effectively protect seamounts and other vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) from destructive bottom trawl fishing. Meanwhile, in New Zealand this week, a bottom trawler ploughed into Lord Howe Rise, a vast unexplored plateau in the deep sea, home to a rich diversity of marine life, triggering the suspension of all fishing in the area.

The need to protect the deep from existing and emerging threats has also been hitting the headlines elsewhere this week. On Thursday 31st October, the Nordic Council adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. Astrid Puentes Riaño,The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, also highlighted the risks that DSM poses to human rights, warning that deep-sea mining would perpetuate systematic inequalities if it were to go ahead.

During the COP, scientists from Florida State University, the University of Hawaii Mānoa and the University of Victoria, highlighted the critical role the deep sea plays in keeping our planet healthy and the action needed to protect it. This included protecting VMEs from bottom trawling, rejecting destructive new industries, including deep-sea mining, and cutting carbon emissions.

The DSCC’s Executive Director, Sian Owen added:

“Within the first week of COP16 negotiations, some States fought to keep reference to the deep sea in the text. As the Conference concludes this week in Cali we hope to see more States recognise the urgency of honouring the commitments they made twenty years ago to protect the biodiversity in the beating blue heart of our planet – the deep sea.”

Matthew Gianni, DSCC Policy Advisor commented:

“The deep sea is one of the most biologically diverse areas of our planet. CBD member countries finally, after eight years of negotiations, agreed a way forward to identify new ecologically and biologically significant areas on the high seas. This will be of real value to our work in convincing countries to take further actions to protect seamounts and other deep-sea ecosystems and biodiversity from damage caused by bottom trawling and to agree to a moratorium on deep-sea mining.”