Next week, the Greenpeace ship
Esperanza will embark on an expedition to scientifically survey vulnerable deep-seafloor habitats in the hope that our work will lead to their protection. The
Esperanza will be in the Bering Sea, home to some of the largest submarine canyons in the world, including the Zhemchug and Pribilof Canyons. Zhemchug Canyon is the world's largest submarine canyon. It drops down to a depth of greater than 2600 meters, and is as much as 100 kilometers across. This expedition will be the first in situ exploration of Zhemchug Canyon. Greenpeace will use an ROV, and two Deep Worker mini-submarines to explore the canyons. To provide a sense of the scale of these deep-sea features, both the Pribilof and Zhemchug Canyons are larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon itself.
These unique habitats are deep enough to provide refuges for species that have literally no place else to hide from industrial fishing operations, and are likely to be home for creatures that have yet to be seen by human eyes. In fact, due to their geographic isolation, there are believed to be species living in the depths of these canyons that can be found nowhere else on earth. It is our hope that the data we obtain on this expedition will lead to new protections for these spectacular places as well as deepening our understanding of the canyons' role in the Bering Sea ecosystem, especially given a recent decision by US regulators to not provide protection to the Bering Sea canyons, citing a lack of information demonstrating a need for protection.
Yet, while these areas may fall within the US EEZ, the lack of knowledge about the deep-sea life that inhabits the canyons and the genetic resources that they hold, and the way that some of these species may be being wiped out before these areas have even been explored, speaks especially loudly to the topic of this meeting.
It is estimated that approximately 98 percent of known marine species live in ocean floor or `benthic' environments. More species live in benthic environments than in all other environments on earth combined and most of these species have yet to be described and classified. Because most of the deep-sea falls in areas beyond national jurisdiction, most deep-sea genetic resources occur in areas that are currently unregulated. In recent years, the vulnerability of these deep-sea ecosystems has been highlighted by other threats such as high seas bottom trawl fishing. The international debate over how to regulate high seas bottom trawling has drawn attention to and raised concern about how to manage other unregulated activities that occur in marine areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
In the past, states have focused on the rights accrued under UNCLOS, but have not acted to entrench their responsibilities to conserve and protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction other than for highly migratory and straddling fish stocks through the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. When there has been action taken, it has been on a piece-meal basis, issue by issue, threat by threat. There is currently no legal regime that regulates the impacts of the exploration and exploitation of deep-sea marine biodiversity for scientific, as well as commercial purposes in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This is a major gap in international oceans law which must be closed before it is too late.
There is a way to meet these challenges: to promote an integrated, precautionary and ecosystem-based approach to high seas biodiversity protection. It requires the negotiation of a holistic new agreement under the auspices of UNCLOS. An agreement capable of addressing any and all of the new and emerging threats to marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, as well as establishing a global network of Marine Reserves to protect, restore and rebuild marine habitats and ecosystems while also enhancing their resilience to climate change and other threats. Such an agreement must pay special attention to the complex ecosystem issues and uncertainty surrounding the exploitation of deep-sea genetic resources, and the need to fairly and equitably share their benefits. For as part of the common heritage of humankind, it is essential that the benefits from these deep-sea organisms are fairly and equitably shared without compromising their viability. They form part of the complex web of life that has been woven across the millennia deep below the surface of the oceans, and their intrinsic value must be recognised and protected before they are exploited or even overexploited - as has been the case for other unregulated deep-sea species.
As such, in order to combat the very real threats to the genetic resources of the deep-sea, this ICP must:
- recognise that there is a lack of scientific knowledge about deep-sea genetic resources, but that this is not a justification for inaction. The precautionary principle must be applied.
- recognise the absence of a comprehensive legal regime to ensure the conservation and sustainable and equitable use and benefit sharing of deep-sea marine biodiversity.
- recognise that this needs to be done in accordance with international law and thus the Law of the Sea Convention, and therefore,
- recommend that the UN General Assembly develop a new UNCLOS Agreement to Implement its Articles on the duties of States to Protect and Preserve the Marine Environment.
