Aug 6 — On Sunday Aug 3rd, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a scathing statement, condemning China as “predatory” due to a fleet of potentially illegal, unreported, and unregulated vessels gathered in international waters outside the Galapagos Marine Reserve in Ecuador. The influx of fishing vessels so close to a protected marine reserve is concerning, but the Trump Administration, which has had an extremely poor record in conservation, as messenger is highly disingenuous. In response, Greenpeace USA Senior Oceans Campaigner Arlo Hemphill said:
“If the Trump administration was truly concerned about illegal fishing, they should support a strong global ocean treaty to protect the Galápagos Islands and other marine environments. It’s easy to criticise other countries while weakening environmental legislation in the US. It stands out as stark hypocrisy as the Trump Administration has the worst environmental record of any US presidency, including:
- Undoing 100¹ environmental regulations, including many focused on the oceans.
- Opening almost all US waters up to oil and gas leases.
- Rolling back protections against commercial fishing in the ecologically sensitive Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument.
- Using COVID-19 as an excuse to remove fishery observers from fishing vessels, etc.
Unfortunately, the US has not been supportive of a strong treaty with the power to create sanctuaries on the high seas arguing instead that power over the high seas remain in the hands of the fishing industry, given by proxy through regional fishery management organizations.
If the US were to legitimately support ocean conservation in international waters, it should firstly ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, and secondly send a delegation to the Global Ocean Treaty conference² to negotiate the strongest possible treaty that would afford the high seas the same kinds of protections we hold dear in U.S. waters.” said Arlo Hemphill.
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html
- https://www.un.org/bbnj/
