The home of the Southern Right whale is under threat. In the south-west Atlantic alone, over 400 fishing vessels arrive each year to empty its seas. Uncontrolled fishing takes away food from dolphins, sharks, and elephant seals, and puts them at risk of ending up in fishing nets.
With a lack of control and regulations in these international waters, the South Atlantic Ocean is like the Wild West of industrial fishing, where huge ships can get away with destructive fishing practices. Some of these boats turn off their radars to enter national waters illegally.
To protect the home of whales and other incredible ocean life, we need to protect our global oceans, like the international waters of the South Atlantic Ocean. Next year, governments at the United Nations have the historic opportunity to agree a Global Ocean Treaty. This treaty could help us to protect the oceans by enabling governments to create large sanctuaries, free from harmful human activities like uncontrolled destructive fisheries, to save both the species and our oceans.
Add your name to help cover our planet in ocean sanctuaries, and call on governments to agree a strong Global Ocean Treaty at the UN.
Now we have a chance to turn things around, by putting the most vulnerable and important parts of our oceans off-limits to destructive industries. Governments at the UN are starting work on a Global Ocean Treaty that will introduce laws to protect the oceans by creating sanctuaries.