Feature story - November 16, 2004
Latest Update: what happened at the UNSecurity was tight and fidgety. The cameras were ready to record the moment. Our Greenpeace activist was camouflaged to blend in to her surroundings. She had borne witness to an environmental crime: the bulldozing of fragile ocean seamounts. And she was in the presence of people who could do something about it. At the appointed moment, she leapt into the spotlight to demand action, not words.
Greenpeace appeal against sea bottom trawling at the United Nations.
Had she been aboard our ship Esperanza in the North Atlantic
over the last few months, or the Rainbow Warrior in the Southern
Pacific earlier this year, she might have stopped a trawling vessel
from ploughing over rare corals or delayed, at least for a few
hours, the wholesale destruction of an irreplaceable habitat.
Unfortunately, she was in the hallowed halls of the UN, where
some countries with an interest in deep sea plunder strongly prefer
words over action.
Our speech to the UN was on the occassion of the 10th
anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: one of the
most important efforts at protection of the global commons ever
achieved.
In
the run up to today's debate about how to better protect our ocean
environment, we and the other members of the Deep Sea Conservation
Coalition have been showing graphic evidence -- in
photographs,
video, and
scientific reports, that high seas bottom trawling is the most
destructive practice impacting deep sea life.
High seas bottom trawling literally ploughs up the ocean floor
for relatively few fish. The fleets often target seamounts - the
least explored mountains on the planet, that rise more than a 1,000
metres from the ocean floor. Seamounts are teeming with deep sea
life, some of which is undiscovered by science and much is unique
to individual seamounts. We know more about Mars than we know about
some of these habitats.
Yet
our pleas have been ignored. Instead an international call from the
Convention on Biological Diversity to the UN for urgent action has
been watered down to a call for a review in two years time.
"The interests of the few bottom trawling nations have won out
over science and common sense," said our policy advisor Karen Sack
at the UN. "There are deep sea species that are still unknown to
science and yet the commercial interests of a few are considered
more important. Who knows how many of those species could be wiped
out while the politicians sit back reviewing."
More information
Read more about the Rainbow Warrior's
work to expose bottom trawling in the Pacific, and the efforts of
the intrepid Esperanza crew against one of the most destructive
fishing practices in the world.
Read more about
bottom trawling
Take Action!
Send an e-card - tell your friends that bottom
trawling stinks or show them the mysteries
of the deep
Help our campaign against ocean crimes:
Join Greenpeace