World Oceans Day Brings Honors, Warnings

WASHINGTON, DC, June 8, 2004 (ENS) - Today is the 12th annual World Oceans Day, marked with celebrations and awards, but also with warnings about severe pollution and overfishing that are making life difficult for marine creatures. This year's United Nations World Environment Day on Saturday carried a message of ocean protection that is being continued around the world today.

In Washington, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is presenting its annual Leadership Awards tonight to U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, a Republican, and to the four Co-Chairs of the House Oceans Caucus as part of Capitol Hill Oceans Week. The Leadership Award recognizes each individual’s long-term contributions to ocean protection and preservation.

Congressmen Tom Allen of Maine and Sam Farr of California, both Democrats, as well as Jim Greenwood and Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, both Republicans, are being honored at the event tonight.

The Leadership Awards will be presented by National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Trustees Jean-Michel Cousteau and Dr. Sylvia Earle.

Oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle prepares to dive in a JIM suit. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

Special guests include Admiral James Watkins, chair of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, which in April released its draft report for comment.

“The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is delighted to have the opportunity to express its gratitude to these extraordinary individuals whose enthusiasm and diligence have contributed so much to our National Marine Sanctuary Program and to ocean preservation in general,” said Panetta.

Senator Snowe serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and since 1997, has been a leader of its Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries, and Coast Guard. She has helped guide a number of substantial ocean bills into law, including the National Marine Sanctuaries Amendments Act of 2000, the Oceans Act of 2000, and the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000.

Snowe has authored legislation reauthorizing the nation's most important federal planning and conservation program for coastal areas, the Coastal Zone Management Act. She recently sponsored the Fishery Conservation and Management Amendments Act of 2004, which would increase the role of ecosystem science in national fisheries management.

"I'm honored that the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation has presented me with its Leadership Award," said Snowe. "As our environmental and economic health are directly linked to our oceans and coasts, it is critical that we do more to protect these essential resources. Even while we probe the surface of Mars, we have to realize that 95 percent of the world's oceans remain unexplored. That is why we must make investing in our oceans a greater national priority."

The Foundation will present its Volunteer of the Year Award to Stephanie Harlan of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Harlan worked to help designate the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in the early 1990s. She promoted the sanctuary as both a citizen and member of the Capitola City Council, where she now serves as mayor. Harlan went on to become a member of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council and served as its chair from April 2000 to April 2004.

Marlin jumps in Hawaiian waters circa 1980. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

This year, representatives from government, private industry, nonprofits, and academia will focus on management of marine areas and exploring, monitoring and educating. Each panel discussion will begin with an overview from a member of Congress.

Exhibitors will join the symposium on Wednesday for the Ocean Fair, which will feature some of the most successful marine management and exploration programs in the country.

Federal partners include the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program and NOAA Office of Exploration, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water.

NOAA announced Monday the initiation of the National Estuaries Restoration Inventory that will track the progress made toward the goals of the Estuary Restoration Act of 2000. The inventory is an online tool to monitor restoration projects and will serve as a searchable source of information on restoration results.

The Estuary Restoration Act set a goal of restoring one million acres of estuary habitat - salt marshes, seagrass beds, oyster reefs and associated habitats - by the year 2010. The inventory will serve as a restoration information clearinghouse, providing details on restoration techniques and monitoring results.

Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on the New Hampshire-Maine border (Photo courtesy NOAA)

Now an international oceans advocacy organization, Oceana, based in Washington, DC, presented a report on the impact of European trawlers based on more than 300 scientific studies

Xavier Pastor, Oceana director in Europe, has issued a report on the damage that the more than 15,000 European trawlers are doing in every ocean, from both a commercial and ecological perspective. The report documents discards, accidental catches, the collapse of fishing stocks, devastation of thousand year old ecosystems and, as a result of this destruction, many species joining the ranks of those under threat or in danger of extinction.

Oceana is using the report to call for a global moratorium on bottom trawling on the high seas.

Calling on nations to change the way the marine environment is managed, the IUCN-World Conservation Union said Saturday, "Urgent measures are needed to protect the vast hidden treasures of the deep seas from over-exploitation.

By far the most widespread activity affecting the biodiversity of the deep sea is bottom trawl fishing, which consists of dragging heavy chains, nets and steel plates across the ocean floor. A number of surveys have shown that bottom trawl fishing is the single greatest threat to highly vulnerable deep sea environments such as seamounts and deep-sea corals that serve as critical habitats for many commercial fish species.

Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (Photo by Greg Skomal courtesy NOAA)

The high seas - areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction - cover almost 50 percent of the Earth’s surface. They are the least protected part of the world.

Less than one percent of marine habitats are protected - compared with 11.5 percent of global land area.

The Australian government has taken the lead at the United Nations today in promoting the sustainability of the high seas. In a debate that coincides with World Oceans Day, Australia aims to win agreement from other nations to work towards more sustainable management of the high seas by ensuring biodiversity conservation and management.

Australia seeks to have its position included in the United Nations General Assembly's resolution later this year on oceans and the International Law of the Sea.

"All nations have a combined responsibility to ensure that the international ocean territory beyond national jurisdictions are sustainbility managed," said Australian Environment Minister Dr. David Kemp.

"Australia hopes to lead by example and is already working with New Zealand on measures to protect the ocean 'commons' between our island nations," Kemp said.

"Our high seas oceans are vulnerable because they are not governed with the same controls that are in place in domestic waters," he said. "This has the potential to lead to a classic tale of the tragedy of the commons unless we can put in place sustainability structures to ensure the oceans wealth is there for future generations as well as for today."