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.
VVPR info: Karen Sack,Oceans Policy Advisor,Greenpeace International
