Leaders meet to try to pass a UN treaty to protect oceans - August 2022
World leaders will meet at the UN in New York later for more talks to save the world's oceans from overexploitation.
The UN High Seas Treaty has been through 10 years of negotiations but has yet to be signed.
If agreed, it would put 30% of the world's oceans into conservation areas by 2030.
Campaigners hope it will protect marine life from overfishing and other human activities.
Two-thirds of the world's oceans are currently considered international waters, which mean all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research there. But only 1.2% of these high seas, as they are referred to, are protected.
Marine habitat - Oceans and seas form the largest habitat on the planet.
A large variety of animals live in the marine habitat, from tiny plankton to the largest animal in the world – the blue whale. Fish, whale, shark, jellyfish, crab, starfish, sea turtle, octopus, and seaweed are found in marine habitat.
Whale entanglements may be dropping but the threat remains.
The number of whales entangled in fishing gear has declined recently, but the entanglements remain a critical threat to rare species, the federal government said in a report released Tuesday.
There were 53 confirmed cases of large whales entangled in gear in the U.S. in 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday. That was a 25% decline from the previous year and a lower figure than the 13-year average, the agency said.
Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the two biggest threats to declining species of whales, particularly North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340 in the world. The other threat is collisions with ships.
Plastic waste is now found everywhere on Earth - from the Artic to the Antartic. From Mount Everest to the bottom of the seas. Plastic pollution ends up in the food chain, and in our drinking water. Plastic pollution kills and damages myriad species and forms of life.
Emissions of CO2 driving rapid oceanic acidification
Corals all over the world are threatened by rising rates of acidification in the oceans.
The world's oceans are becoming acidic at an "unprecedented rate", more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years. In their strongest statement yet on this issue, scientists say acidification could increase by 170% by 2100. They say that some 30% of ocean species are unlikely to survive in these conditions. The researchers conclude that human emissions of CO2 are clearly to blame. The study will be presented at global climate talks in Poland next week.
In 2012, over 500 of the world's leading experts on ocean acidification gathered in California. Led by the International Biosphere-Geosphere Programme, a review of the state of the science has now been published. This Summary for Policymakers states with "very high confidence" that increasing acidification is caused by human activities which are adding 24 million tonnes of CO2 to oceans every day.
Japan dolphins and other sea species 'face extinction'
Japan dolphins and other sea species 'face extinction' The EIA says that dolphins are trapped and then sold to aquaria or slaughtered for consumption Japan's hunting of dolphins, smaller whales and porpoises is threatening some species with extinction in its coastal waters, a report by a British environmental group has said. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) report says that more than a million such creatures have been killed in Japanese hunts in the past 70 years. It says that each year thousands are killed despite conservation concerns. The Japanese government has not commented on the report. But it has consistently defended its coastal whaling as a longstanding tradition, a source of livelihood and necessary for scientific research. The government has also argued that small cetaceans should be excluded from the International Convention on Whaling. 'Grave concerns' The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says that the Japanese practice of driving many dolphins and porpoises onto beaches to be slaughtered has drawn international condemnation. Japanese hand-harpoon hunting vessel The EIA says that porpoises, dolphins and small whales are often chased until they become exhausted and within range of hand-held harpoons. The EIA says that it is also unsustainable, and a danger to human health. Studies have found high levels of mercury and industrial chemicals like PCBs in dolphin and porpoise meat. One study found people living in one dolphin-eating community in central Japan have mercury levels five times higher than normal.
Corals are likely to suffer as a result of the changes to our oceans The health of the world’s oceans is deteriorating even faster than had previously been thought, a report says. A review from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), warns that the oceans are facing multiple threats. They are being heated by climate change, turned slowly less alkaline by absorbing CO2, and suffering from overfishing and pollution. The report warns that dead zones formed by fertiliser run-off are a problem. It says conditions are ripe for the sort of mass extinction event that has afflicted the oceans in the past. It says: “We have been taking the ocean for granted. It has been shielding us from the worst effects of accelerating climate change by absorbing excess CO2 from the atmosphere. “Whilst terrestrial temperature increases may be experiencing a pause, the ocean continues to warm regardless. For the most part, however, the public and policymakers are failing to recognise - or choosing to ignore - the severity of the situation.” It says the cocktail of threats facing the ocean is more powerful than the individual problems themselves. Coral reefs, for instance, are suffering from the higher temperatures and the effects of acidification whilst also being weakened by bad fishing practices, pollution, siltation and toxic algal blooms. IPSO, funded by charitable foundations, is publishing a set of five papers based on workshops in 2011 and 2012 in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN’s) World Commission on Protected Areas.
Many lizards are under threat, including the mountain horned agama of Sri Lanka
Almost a fifth of the world's reptile species are at risk of extinction, according to scientists.
Research led by the Zoological Society of London found that the future of 19% of the world's reptiles are threatened. Conservation experts also confirmed that 47% are vulnerable and highlighted the possible extinction of three species. The figures are based on a random sample of 1,500 of the world's reptile species. "It's essentially an election poll set up - using this sample to give an example of how reptiles are doing as a whole," explained Dr Monika Bohm, lead author of the study published in the journal Biological Conservation. The study was made in conjunction with 200 experts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission.
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