Protect the High Seas before it's too late, Governments urged

Gland, Switzerland, 10 May, 2001 (IUCN/WWF) - Urgent measures are needed to protect the vast hidden treasures of the deep seas from over-exploitation, according to a new report by WWF, the conservation organization, and IUCN, the World Conservation Union.

The report, The Status of Natural Resources on the High Seas, says that the deep sea, and the creatures that live within it, are threatened by unregulated fishing and oil exploration, CO2 dumping, biotechnology, and the exploitation of gas hydrates and hydrothermal vent heat. Particularly threatened are corals in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean which have been damaged by industrialized fishing trawlers which drag heavy chains over reefs, the orange roughy fish, whales, dolphins and porpoises. The report calls for international agreements to be put in place to regulate the management, protection and exploitation of high seas beyond the 200 nautical-mile limit of the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of coastal states.

''Increasing levels of fishing and oil exploration are harming the fragile biodiversity of the deep seas,'' said Dr. Simon Cripps, Head of WWF's Marine Programme. ''Being open to unregulated access has made the high seas increasingly susceptible to over-exploitation. The enhanced capacity and reach of fishing fleets, and advanced technologies that can enable oil drilling to take place up to depths of at least 2,000 metres, put the sensitive marine life of the high seas at great risk.''

About half of the Earth's surface is covered by high seas that are outside national jurisdiction. Within them exists marine life that is rich in diversity as well as scientific and geologically significant deep-sea coral reefs, seamounts, deep-sea trenches and fish stocks. The WWF/IUCN report, written by specialists from the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom and Dr. Charlotte de Fontaubert, calls on states to assess the magnitude of these resources, the threats to them, their potential for sustainable use and action to protect biodiversity.

The IUCN's Amman World Conservation Congress in October 2000 urged governments, international agencies and NGOs to review existing legal agreements and to identify areas of the high seas suitable for collaborative management, and to agree on ways to manage and conserve them. Part of the solution, says the report, could be the designation of different types of High-Seas Marine Protected Areas (HSMPAs) to address the uncertainty of exploitation of their living resources. Some elements of international agreements already require states to cooperate in managing resources of the high seas. What governments and international conservation organisations need to do is go a step further and take urgent action to overcome political, legal and institutional obstacles to practical implementation of activities to protect the high seas.

"Technology is advancing at such a pace that by the time that we know the value of a resource, it may be gone. We have to plan now for the conservation and sustainable, equitable uses of marine resources in areas outside national jurisdiction," said John Waugh, Senior Multilateral Relations Officer, IUCN.

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