Negotiators acknowledge progress in the High Seas Treaty despite gaps

There are large gaps in the negotiations on the High Seas Treaty that are taking place in New York, among them the magnitude of the environmental impact reports in the face of actions such as the one announced by Japan to dump 1.29 million cubic meters into the Pacific Ocean of radioactive water from Fukushima.

The negotiations “they are making progress”However, several points still need to be overcome, says the expert on the subject of High seas of the organization Pew Charitable Trusts from United States, liz karan and project director “Protecting Ocean Life on the High Seas” (Protection of marine life on the high seas).

In principle, March 2022 is the scheduled date for the countries integrated into United Nations present the Treaty that is being negotiated from March 7 to 18 to protect biodiversity in international waters, that is, beyond national marine jurisdictions, and establish protection standards against activities such as fishing, marine mining, the transport of goods, contamination or investigation.

Karan assures that although the negotiations are slow, “everything is possible”although he sees it difficult to complete in fifteen days such a broad negotiation on all the factors that come together in the protection of the seabed beyond national jurisdiction (BBJN, for its acronym in English) and that has taken a long time – more than 15 years – on table.

In addition, there are interests and pressures from various sectors that try to get the most out of the negotiations, acknowledges Karan, who, however, points out that civil society organizations and representatives, after two years of delay due to the pandemic, only they can follow the conversations electronically and many national negotiating delegations with the Marine Authority “they are smaller”.

The environmental impact reports on different activities or actions that may affect marine life is one of the hottest points for negotiators seeking to update the United Nations Sea Convention from 1994.

A good example of this, according to Karan, is the announcement made by Japan dumping 1.29 million cubic meters of radioactive water from the nuclear power plant in Fukushimawhich suffered an accident on March 11, 2011 after a tsunami.

This announcement by the Japanese authorities for 2023 is opposed by local fishermen who now fear the definitive cessation of their already diminished activity due to radioactive water contamination, in addition to the rejection expressed by neighboring countries such as China and South Korea.

Just this week, a study of the expedition “OceanScientific Pollutants of the Mediterranean 2020″which analyzes the density of chemical and organic compounds that pollute the marine environment, revealed that Spain it is positioned above the average in the chemical pollution that it discharges into the Mediterranean Sea.

The expedition, led by the French Yvan Gribovalcollected a total of nine samples over a space of about 1,000 nautical miles (from Monaco to the mouth of the Tiber on Italy, Porto Cervo on sardinia, Barcelona and Mataró on Spainand La Seyne-sur-Meron France), in which contaminants were found such as: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or tributyltins (TBT).

Regarding the pollution that the conflict will produce in Ukraine, the representative of the Pew Charitable Trusts explains that it will take some time to know what the repercussions on the ocean and the environment will be, but despite the humanitarian crisis, this conflict has shown that “multilateralism is not dead”and that countries can come together for swift and decisive action.

This could show that “With a domino effect and a spirit of cooperation and urgent action, it is possible to act in the face of the climate or ocean crisis”.

The pressure of fishing and the countries that exert it to remain outside the influence of this treaty “is limited”according to Karan, who recalls that more than 80% of catches worldwide are made by five countries: China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Spain.

However, the expert recalls that some experiences show that limiting temporary catches in the ocean reverts to subsequent benefits in the recovery of biodiversity and in the fishermen and shipowners themselves.

The High Seas Protection Treaty also seeks to determine the environmental and biodiversity impact of freight transport that has “increased in the last two decades”activity for which “study a tax”.

“The ocean gives us the breath we take every second, but it also guarantees life in the sea and on land”assures Karan, and underlines the action of the rulers who are committed to the conservation of the ocean, such as the commitment of 40 countries in Brest (France) last February, the UNEA5 on Nairobi against plastic pollution and the next two opportunities, the first in April in Palau (Oceania) and in Lisbon next June.