 |
|
 |
High seas marine protected areas (MPAs) are an essential tool for improving management of the oceans beyond national jurisdiction. This is the main message of the new PARKS magazine featuring High Seas MPAs. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) launched PARKS at the recent United Nations meeting on oceans management (United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and Law of the Sea) on 12 June 2006. The world’s oceans play a critical role in maintaining the biosphere and are under increasing stress from expanding human activities. These stresses include overfishing decimating populations of large oceanic animals such as tunas, sharks and sea turtles; destructive fishing practices devastating deep-sea seamounts, which are biological ‘islands’ with many endemic, slow-breeding species. Worsening pollution from noise, litter and chemicals further undermines ecosystem and wildlife health. Global climate change is another growing threat for the oceans, by warming up sea temperatures, shifting global circulation systems, and increasing acidification of ocean waters. All these changes may cause dramatic changes in species composition, migratory patterns and even of entire ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems are essential if they are to be able to respond to changing oceanic conditions, both natural and human induced. “To meet these challenges, the nations of the world need to agree on over-arching policies that integrate conservation and sustainable management of the high seas,” said Kristina Gjerde, co-editor, author and High Seas Policy Advisor to IUCN’s Global Marine Programme. “All human activities impacting on ecosystems, biodiversity and productivity beyond national jurisdiction need to be included in these policies” she added. The United Nations Law of the Sea Convention calls for States to protect rare and fragile ecosystems even on the High Seas. “It is time to put these duties into effect, both by creating representative networks of High Seas MPAs as well as by minimizing the footprint of humanity throughout the oceans,” said Kristina Gjerde. “The High Seas are special. They cover about 50% of the world’s surface but are regulated in almost inverse proportion to the size of the area they occupy, as well as to their substantial importance to life on earth,” said Graeme Kelleher, co-editor/author as well as chair of WCPA’s High Seas MPA Task Force. “A representative system of High Seas MPAs is now achievable. It could be based on available data we already have about seabed and water masses, as well as data on particular habitats and species,” said Dan Laffoley, author and WCPA Vice Chair, Marine. “In addition to protecting high seas seamounts and corals from impacts such as deep sea bottom trawling, it is also necessary to protect vulnerable open ocean habitats like drift algae that serve as oceanic “oases” for a wide variety of species. One of these is the sunfish (Mola mola) depicted on the cover of PARKS,” said Arlo Hemphill, author and Director of Global Marine Strategy of Conservation International, at the launch of the magazine. PARKS Vol 15, No 3 (2005): High Seas Marine Protected Areas |
 |