OCEAN AND CLIMATE
Ocean to save the Climate Save the
REBECCA HUBBARD AND MIKE WALKER, OUR FISH
T
he ocean is incredible. It is the source of all life on earth and is the most significant contributor to planetary health - we owe it our every second breath. It doesn’t stop there: it has absorbed over 90 percent of humandriven atmospheric warming and soaks up a third of the CO2 we emit. If it were not for its cooling effect, the planet would be a staggering 36 C˚ warmer! So even if you don’t eat fish or live by the ocean, we all have a stake in a planetary system which sustains human life. But rather than treating it as the life-giving source that it is, we are subjecting it to multiple stressors: plastic and toxic pollution, destructive fishing and climate change. And sustained destructive fishing has impacted marine biodiversity and its capacity to mitigate climate change. But as the inspiring marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle has said, unlike any other time in history we have the power of "WE’VE HAD A STRING knowledge – knowledge of the QUARTET AND AN destruction we are responsible for, OPERA SINGER PULL ON but also the power of knowing THE HEART-STRINGS OF what can be done. Our Fish MINISTERS OUTSIDE EU campaigns for incorporating that knowledge into EU (including FISHERIES MEETINGS, Irish) fisheries management in AND WE’VE EVEN order to end overfishing and SUMMONED THE GOD restore ocean health. OF THE OCEAN TO We have been working with a DEMAND AN END TO team of global scientists on a series OVERFISHING!" of research papers exploring how fisheries management can increase ocean resilience and its capacity to mitigate the impact of climate change. This work is crucial to understanding and advocating for the restoration of fish populations so that they can fulfil their role in cycling and sequestering more carbon, as well as decreasing direct emissions from fishing vessels. The papers will be published in the coming weeks and be presented during 30
the Lisbon UN Ocean Conference in late June. By collaborating with organisations and scientists across the EU and beyond, and by deploying robust evidence, Our Fish is calling for an end to EU overfishing as a rapid, achievable and effective way of addressing the biodiversity and climate crisis. Our Fish often uses bold and provocative messaging, or employs colourful and sometimes noisy street theatre to catch attention. We’ve worked with renowned street artists and flamenco dancers; we’ve had a string quartet and an opera singer pull on the heart-strings of ministers outside EU fisheries meetings, and we’ve even summoned the god of the ocean to demand an end to overfishing! On a quieter note, we also run expert briefings and webinars so the media, policymakers and politicians better understand the issues and solutions. During Ireland’s 2013 Presidency, the EU committed to end overfishing by 2015 and by 2020 at the latest. We missed that commitment and over 40 per cent of fish populations in the North-East Atlantic are still subject to overfishing, 84 percent of European waters are considered ‘problem areas’, and thousands of sensitive marine animals such as dolphins are still dying each year as bycatch. The EU fishing fleet has too many destructive bottom trawlers, subsidised by public money (through fuel tax exemptions and more) to take too many fish. This is down to insufficient political oversight and a perception that fisheries management is a marginal issue, with industry interests exercising disproportionate political influence. Our Fish is working to shift the discussion away from late-night haggling between fisheries ministers over fishing quotas, to a higher-level discussion about the critical role of a healthy ocean to climate action, and the need for ecosystem-based management that supports a just transition to low-impact fishing. The European Commission has committed to publishing an Ocean Action Plan as part of its
Irish Wildlife Summer ‘22
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