Taking the Message to the United Nations

Today concluded a two-day UN General Assembly Workshop on high seas bottom fishing to address impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems and the long-term sustainability of deep sea fish stocks.  The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition was active throughout the workshop. We held a side event and a lunchtime panel debate featuring leading scientists, presented twice during plenary, and hosted an evening reception for further discussion that recreated the underwater world for “total immersion” for the delegates.   

The workshop clarified the threats of bottom fishing to deep-sea ecosystems and demonstrated unequivocably that the international community is failing to protect them. A report of the meeting will now be developed and it is likely that the outcomes of the Review will be reflected in the Sustainable Fisheries General Assembly Resolution 2011. The first part of the negotiations close this afternoon and re-open in November.

The DSCC side event provided a comprehensive overview of the implementation failures of regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) and deep-sea fishing countries.  Lisa Speer, Director of the International Oceans Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, chaired a discussion with leading scientists -   Peter Auster of the University of Connecticut, Elliott Norse of the Marine Conservation Institute, Alex Rogers of Oxford University, Les Watling of the University of Hawaii, and Phil Weaver of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

Matthew Gianni, Political and Policy Advisor to the DSCC, and Karen Sack, Deputy Director of the Pew Environment Group, made presentations during plenary on the urgent need for implementation of UN resolutions to protect the deep sea. 

 

Our Worth Saving mascot, Roundnose Grenadier, got all dolled up to meet the UN delegations and have a glass of wine at our evening reception.

Roundnose Goes to Paris

Roundnose Grenadier continues to travel the world in search of support. Just last week, Roundnose Grenadier visited Paris to take in the sites and spread the message that the deep sea is worth saving.

The first stop was the Eiffel Tower. Roundnose was a bit confused why you'd build something so tall. After all, there are plenty of enormous seamounts to admire in the ocean!

Afterwards, Roundnose visited the famous Louvre. Though he likes classic Rome sculpture, he spent a while admiring landscape paintings. Just recently Roundnose has considered taking up painting in water colors.

And finally, Roundnose visited the famous Arc de Triomphe. Completed in 1836, it's just a little bit older than Roundnose's friend Orange Roughy (who's at the ripe old age of 150!)

Learn more about where Roundnose Grenadier has been here.

Merry-Go-Roundnose

Round and around we go, where will we stop?  We really don't know.  As leading international scientists recently pointed out, the deep sea is in need of protection, yet policy lags.

CLICK HERE to see a quick animation and learn which countries are causing problems this week!

I Am Worth Saving!!!

Want to save the deep sea?  Then click HERE to give the roundnose grenadier a makeover and send your photo to the UN Secretary General.  Click "Create Your Fish" to send this message to Ban Ki-moon:

Deep sea life must be protected from destructive bottom fishing. It is unacceptable that the UN General Assembly's resolutions of 2006 and 2009 have not been followed. In your review of bottom fishing this September, it is critical that all high seas fishing nations follow all of the UN General Assembly resolutions - or stop deep sea bottom fishing. Deep sea fishing in breach of the UN resolutions is illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. The UN must make this clear, and this damaging and unsustainable fishing must stop.

Roundnose Grenadier Visits the United Nations

Last week, the Roundnose Grenadier visited the United Nations, where delegates met for the Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (ICP). Roundnose had a little trouble getting in the UN, but luckily he made some friends outside who could help guide him. 

The Fish Can Dance!

While on his way to the United Nations, our Roundnose Grenadier stopped in at a 'splash' mob held in honor of World Oceans Day at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Roundnose was happy to see his deep-sea friend, Orange Roughy there. Roughy is tired of the deep sea bottom trawlers messing up her home too so she agreed to help Roundnose do what they can to put a stop to them!

Who knew Roundnose and Roughy could boogie down with the best of them?! Look out Dancing with the Stars, here come your next champions!

 

Roundnose Making the Rounds at the UN

Here members of the DSCC pose for a photo with a critically endangered Roundnose Grenadier. (Source: Environmental Negotiations Bulletin) 

Today is the final day of the United Nations BBNJ meeting, and the DSCC has been working long hours to ensure that the working group makes strong recommendations to the UN General Assembly.  We hope that these recommendations would push the GA enough to take further action to protect deep-sea biodiversity on the high seas.  The GA will meet in September to review its past resolutions.

More news to come on the outcome!

The Roundnose Grenadier, our Mascot for this Critical Year

Roundnose Grenadier at the United Nations.

Why did we choose the Roundnose Grenadier over so many other species for our campaign?  The choice was clear for a few reasons.

The Roundnose is now endangered as a result of overfishing in its home range of the North Atlantic. 

In fact, the Roundnose Grenadier now qualifies as ‘Critically Endangered’.  The abundance of Roundnose Grenadier in the North Atlantic declined by 99.6% from 1978 to 2003!!! 

And the causes of this decline are well understood.  The Roundnose Grenadier is typically caught before it fully matures, meaning there simply aren’t any fish left to reproduce.  Commercial Roundnose Grenadier catches are typically comprised of fish ages 5-10 with a peak at 6 years - yet it is estimated that females mature around 12-15 years! 

Add to this the fact that the Roundnose Grenadier fishing is poorly regulated throughout the North Atlantic, and you’ve got a recipe for extinction!

The Roundnose Grenadier is caught in trawl nets, which destroy the habitat for any remaining fish (or just about anything else that lives on the seabed).  Further, these trawl nets yield massive and wasteful bycatch. 

For example, France has reported that bycatch accounts for about 30% of catch in weight and 50% in number for its vessels targeting Roundnose Grenadier in the Northeast Atlantic.  This bycatch is simply dumped back into the ocean, dead or dying.

And finally, the Roundnose is one special fish!  Among the many cool aspects of the Roundnose are:

·         It can thrive in temperatures of 1.6°C and below! For humans hypothermia sets in if our body temperature drops below 35°C.

·         To avoid being detected by predators, it can go into stealth mode. It uses the light organ on its belly to mask its silhouette from below and hide in plain sight from predators looking upward for food.

·         It can live for up to 80 years, which is a miracle when biological research has shown that it is generally bigger animals that live longer. Roundnose Grenadier grow to one and a half meters in size but share the same life span as humans and outlive both elephants (78> years) and whale sharks (70 years).

When you add all this up, why wouldn’t we ask the Roundnose to be our mascot?  Clearly, this fish is WORTH SAVING!

Sources:

COSEWIC. 2007. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the roughhead grenadier Macrourus berglax in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. At: http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/collection_2007/ec/CW69-14-525-2007E.pdf

Devine, J.A., K.D. Baker and R.L. Haedrich. 2006. Fisheries: deep-sea fishes qualify as endangered. Nature 439, 29. (doi:10.1038/439029a)

Devine, J.A and Haedrich, R.L. 2008. Population Trends and Status of Two Exploited Northwest Atlantic Grenadiers, Coryphaenoides rupestris and Macrourus berglax. In: Grenadiers of the World Oceans: Biology, Stock Assessment and Fisheries. Orlov, A. and Iwamoto, T. (Eds.) Symposium 63: American Fisheries Society. ISBN: 978-1-934874-00-4

ICES. Widely Distributed and Migratory Stocks. Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, Book 9. 2010. http://www.ices.dk/products/icesadvice/2010/ICES%20ADVICE%202010%20Book%209.pdf

Where is Roundnose?

The "Worth Saving" spokesfish, the Roundnose Grenadier arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 27th, having swum from its home in the deep sea off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Its plight — the decimation of many hundreds of thousands of its family members, complete lack of regulation or management of the grenadier fish stocks and destruction of its habitat by bottom trawling.

In search of protection and models of sustainability, the Grenadier made its first appearance at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market, the oldest market in North America. After having a few conversations with market goers about the importance of sustainable seafood, sadly, the Grenadier was asked to leave by the Halifax Port Authority (although the individual guards expressed support for the Grenadier's situation).

Swimming across the Harbour, to the shores of Dartmouth, the Grenadier emerged from the water, beneath the MacDonald Bridge. While gathering its thoughts, and trying to find someone to help — the Bridge Commission sent some commissionaires to ask the Grenadier to move along.

The Grenadier hasn't received much of a welcome here on the shores of Nova Scotia (which is surprising because one of the tourism tag lines is '100,000 Welcomes' or 'Céad míle fáilte' in Gaelic). So far for the Grenadier, it is 0 for 2.

Making its way to NAFO, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, the organization responsible for managing fisheries on the high seas in the Northwest Atlantic, again — the Grenadier was met with closed doors. The Roundnose Grenadier high tails it for New York City, where the Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction is meeting from May 31-June 3rd, 2011.

The Deep Sea is WORTH SAVING (A New Campaign and Website)

This is a big year for the deep sea.  So the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition has created the “Worth Saving” campaign to profile the issues and exert pressure on governments and industry to make the right choices on deep sea conservation.  And along with this campaign, we have created an entirely new website for the DSCC.  

This week, the BBNJ meeting marks the launch of this campaign and online platform. Our “Worth Saving” message will be shared with policy makers at an event we are hosting at lunch on Thursday June 2^nd.  Invitations to the event will be handed out as ‘messages in a bottle’, sending an SOS signal on behalf of the deep sea and its “unlovely” creatures. 

A poster from the DSCC's new 'Worth Saving' Campaign

What can you do to get involved?  You can start with the Worth Saving campaign now by downloading and using our banners on your blog or website. 

And of course, keep an eye out for our most valuable team member - Roundnose Grenadier - as it travels the world in search of deep-sea protections!

Over the coming months the campaign will really start to evolve and gain momentum. The public will be able to give roundnose grenadiers an online make-over to increase their appeal to politicians - the resulting images can be emailed to named politicians or collected in a gallery to demonstrate growing momentum around calls for action.  (More on this feature soon!)