Climate warming, fishing overfishing, marine plastic waste pollution and other issues have led to serious damage to the marine ecosystem and biodiversity. Environmental experts suggest that the international community should further strengthen the comprehensive management of the ocean, reduce the impact of human marine activities on marine biodiversity, and gradually establish a sustainable mode of production and consumption.

According to an article published recently on the website of new scientist, overfishing has reduced the number of marine fish such as sharks and rays by at least 71% between 1970 and 2018, and some marine species are facing the crisis of "ethnic collapse". The researchers pointed out that if predators such as sharks disappear in an area, it is easy to cause a chain reaction in the whole marine ecosystem.

Many environmental protection agencies have called on all countries to strengthen international cooperation, strive to solve the problems of overfishing and marine garbage pollution, and jointly protect the colorful planet.

The number of marine species has been reduced by more than half

"In January this year, we found that the number of dolphin stranding deaths was twice that of the same period last year, and so far it has exceeded 400." Elaine Peltier, a French biologist who has been tracking the stranding of dolphins and cetaceans in the French coastal city of La Rochelle for a long time, said. She said that in recent years, the vast majority of stranded dolphins will leave scars caused by deep-sea trawlers and large purse seines. The "non screening" fishing method is considered to be the main cause of dolphin stranding death.

Overfishing has a profound impact on marine ecosystem and biodiversity. According to the earth vitality report 2020 released by the World Wide Fund for nature, from 1970 to 2016, the number of mammals, birds, fish and amphibians in the world decreased by 68% on average, and the number of marine species in the world decreased by more than half in the past 40 years.

In the early morning of the fish market in the old port of Marseille, a city in the south of France, boats coming back from fishing late at night and full of fishing goods have come ashore, which is the busiest time of the day. Over the years, the fish market in the old port of Marseilles has maintained a relatively stable trading scale, but fishermen are increasingly worried that the number of fish, especially cod, is decreasing, and the price of fish is also rising.

Climate change and marine pollution also aggravate the deterioration of marine living environment. According to a research article published in the British journal Nature on January 27 this year, the global ocean surface temperature has been rising in the past 12000 years due to the retreat of ice sheet, greenhouse gas emissions and other factors. The researchers pointed out that the increase of ocean temperature will cause large-scale migration of marine species to the deep sea and the poles, and the number of species in warm waters will decrease, indirectly affecting marine biodiversity. Marine garbage, especially micro plastic garbage, is seriously polluted, which leads to the loss of marine ecosystem and species habitat and the imbalance of marine biological community structure.

Marine governance and protection become a consensus

At present, many countries in the world actively participate in global and regional marine governance and protection, and strive to create barriers for marine biodiversity protection through legislation, the establishment of marine protected areas and other means.

From the international level, the international community has initially established a marine environmental governance system based on two categories of Treaties: marine environmental pollution control and marine living resources protection. The United Nations Convention on the law of the sea, adopted in 1982, provides an international framework for better management of marine resources. In 1995, FAO adopted the code of conduct for Responsible Fisheries and formulated detailed guidelines on fishing to protect marine ecosystem and biodiversity.

In order to protect endangered animals and plants, the United Nations Convention on biological diversity came into being. At present, the negotiation of the "framework for biodiversity beyond 2020" has entered a critical juncture, and will be considered at the 15th Conference of the parties to the Convention on biological diversity (COP15) to be held in Kunming in May 2021. UN Secretary General Guterres believes that COP15 will play an important role in establishing a global biodiversity framework and curbing the crisis of species extinction.

All countries pay more and more attention to the construction of marine protected areas, and take measures to prevent over exploitation of marine resources and protect marine biodiversity by prohibiting fishing, mining or restricting the navigation of commercial vessels. According to the data, by the end of 2019, about 16000 marine protected areas have been designated or established, accounting for 7.9% of the global marine area. Among them, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Palau, Kiribati and other countries have established a series of super large marine reserves with an area of more than 100000 square kilometers, in which fishing is completely or partially prohibited.

Some regions also have detailed rules to deal with overfishing. For example, since 2011, the European Union has carried out many reforms on the common fisheries policy and made strict requirements on fishermen's fishing: on the one hand, it has set fishing quotas for fishermen, on the other hand, it also requires fishermen to conduct artificial screening in the fishing process to prevent some rare marine species from being caught. The EU also strongly supports the development of aquaculture industry, and has issued supporting fishery laws and regulations to implement the "blacklist" system for illegal fishing vessels to combat illegal fishing.

Strengthening international cooperation is of great significance

The "golden Coral Triangle", located between Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and East Timor, is one of the areas with the richest marine biodiversity in the world. It once faced the threat of gradual disappearance of coral reefs and mangroves. In 2009, the six countries and international partners reached a "coral Golden Triangle protection plan" to rescue and maintain the protected areas by expanding the area of the protected areas, jointly combating illegal fishing and environmental damage, and investing more funds to support sustainable marine development, highlighting the importance of international cooperation for marine governance and protection.

Not long ago, UNESCO launched the "decade of oceans" initiative, calling on all sectors of the world to provide innovative solutions for sustainable marine development. Guterres pointed out that people need to cooperate to ensure the healthy survival of marine biodiversity and ecosystems. He believes that 2021 is a key year for marine protection, and it is necessary to stop overfishing, increase protected areas, ensure a substantial reduction in chemical and plastic pollution, and achieve "reconciliation with nature.".

Dana Miller, senior policy adviser of Oceana, a non-profit organization, believes that cross sectoral and cross national dialogue and cooperation are of great significance: "the experience accumulated by some countries will really change the way we think, assess and use the ocean now and in the future. It is important to strengthen international cooperation in the field of ocean governance, which will ensure that all countries and regions equally enjoy the development opportunities brought about by the ocean. "

However, there are still many difficulties and problems to be solved in the implementation of marine biodiversity protection. Dan laffrey, marine protection expert of the World Conservation Union, pointed out that from the legal level, the current global marine governance is in a state of "fragmentation". Under such a background, it is difficult to form a set of international governance programs and response mechanisms. In fishery management, how to achieve a good balance among ecology, economy and society also tests the decision-makers of all countries. Greenpeace, a French environmental protection website, said that the protection of marine ecology needs to "go faster and further", reduce the impact of marine activities on marine biodiversity, and gradually establish more sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Source: People's daily