Roban hopeful UK will back calls for ocean sanctuaries – Royal Gazette

Created: May 21, 2024 07:53 AM

Show of support: Greenpeace campaigner Reshima Sharma with Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs (Photograph by Tavish Campbell/Greenpeace)

The Government is backing calls for an ocean sanctuary to be created in the Sargasso Sea.

Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs and Deputy Premier, said he was hopeful that the Global Ocean Treaty which lays out the groundwork for ocean sanctuaries to be developed on the high seas will be ratified by Britain.

A team from conservation group Greenpeace has been based in Bermuda for the past three weeks, documenting wildlife and conducting scientific experiments in the Sargasso Sea, which surrounds the island.

The group launched a petition calling on Britain to approve the treaty and to work with Bermuda and other nations on a proposal to protect the Sargasso Sea.

The letter gained more than 100 signatures from all parts of Bermudian society in its first 48 hours.

Speaking at a workshop on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, Mr Roban said: Bermuda is optimistic that the Global Ocean Treaty will be ratified.

Our task today and going forward is to show how high seas marine-protected areas will benefit the work to ensure that our global ocean environment is healthy and safe.

We stand with you and we have argued from the beginning that Bermuda, the ocean and our planet will benefit significantly from what has already been accomplished and from what we seek to accomplish.

The workshop was attended by representatives from the Bermuda Audubon Society, Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Bermuda National Trust, Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, High Seas Alliance, Marine and Ports Authority and the Sargasso Sea Commission, among others.

Nichola Clark, a marine protected area co-ordinator at the High Seas Alliance, said: We know that there are particularly valuable high seas areas, such as the Sargasso Sea, that would benefit from comprehensive protections such as those enabled in the High Seas Treaty.

Because the health and functioning of the ocean are declining at an alarming rate, the worlds governments must now take bold and urgent action to ensure that the ocean continues to provide the benefits and resources upon which so many of us depend.

The Sargasso Sea spans some four million square kilometres around Bermuda and plays a critical role in the life cycles of many important marine species including humpback whales, green sea turtles and Bermudas national bird, the cahow.

It is also highly vulnerable to industrial fishing fleets from distant nations, shipping, plastic pollution and climate change.

While part of the Sargasso lies inside Bermudas national waters, the vast majority of it is in international waters known as the high seas.

The Global Ocean Treaty provides for the first time a tool to create ocean sanctuaries on the high seas, but so far less than 1 per cent of these areas are fully protected.

Greenpeace is calling on Britain and governments around the world to develop a proposal for an ocean sanctuary in the Sargasso Sea urgently so it can be considered at the first Conference of the Parties to the High Seas Treaty, expected to be in 2026.

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Roban hopeful UK will back calls for ocean sanctuaries - Royal Gazette