Tag Archives: “Our Ocean” Conference
EDF to partner with Philippine bureau of fisheries to implement fishing reforms
In a dramatic step forward for Asia-Pacific and global ocean conservation, the Philippines has begun implementing sustainable fishing reforms with Environmental Defense Fund serving as a partner to provide critical support on science and policy. The commitment was highlighted at the Our Ocean Conference in Malta, where the Philippines announced it would establish these reforms for its major commercial fisheries by 2022. click here to read the press release 16:58
Prince of Wales claims Somalian pirates have been ‘fantastic’ for marine life because fishermen are too scared to go to sea
Prince Charles’ latest remarks have sparked outrage after he claimed pirates have been ‘fantastic’ for marine life because fisherman were too scared to do their job. The 68-year-old royal said there had been a ‘fantastic explosion’ of bigger fish off the coast of Somalia due to the lack of activity in the sea. Speaking to Sky News, Prince Charles said: ‘As a result, there hasn’t been any fishing there for the last ten or 15 years. And from that there has been a fantastic explosion of bigger and bigger fish.’ His comments came after delivering a keynote speech at the Our Ocean Conference in Malta, which came on the same day that he released a rehabilitated turtle back into the wild. click here to read the story 08:38
Ocean conference raises over $7 billion to marine protection – click here to read the story
Deep Thinker Kerry: Ocean Protection Is ‘Life and Death’ National Security Issue
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke Friday morning at an ocean preservation summit at Georgetown University, saying the state of the world’s oceans is a pressing international security issue. “This is life and death. This is national security. This is international security,” Kerry said. He cited black carbon in the Arctic, rapidly increasing acidification in oceans that harms crustaceans, and illegal, unregulated fishing that is “strip mining the oceans and threatens to destroy an entire ecosystem.” The speech comes just two days after State Department Under Secretary Cathy Novelli cautioned in a press briefing that the amount of plastic in the ocean is so high that “if you lined up garbage bags of plastic along the coast, every coastline that touches the ocean in the entire world, you would have five deep of garbage bags.” If current patterns continue, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050, she said. Read the dogma here 09:12
UK Overseas Territories Marine Protection Areas to double in four years
Speaking ahead of “Our Ocean” conference in Washington DC, Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan announced plans to double the area of ocean under marine protection around the UK Overseas Territories to around four million square kilometers, greater than the landmass of India. This will involve the permanent closure of an additional one million square kilometers of ocean to commercial fishing, to preserve important marine life. The UK will pledge £20 million over the next four years to support the implementation, management, surveillance and crucially the enforcement of these new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the two-day Our Ocean conference will bring together governments, scientists, business leaders and NGOs from around the world to tackle threats to the ocean, including from marine pollution and the climate. Read the story here 16:20
Fishermen, you are not included. The its “Our Ocean Conference” starts today
The State Department holds the “Our Ocean Conference” today, where the President will announce the closure of cantons and seamounts off of the coast of New England. I went to the Our Oceans website, which you can access by clicking here. You can read the agenda by clicking here. There is also a live stream that you can watch by clicking here. You can read the bio’s of keynote speaker by clicking here. Many will be familiar to you, and after reviewing the material, I can assure you this is their ocean, not yours. 09:58
House Natural Resources Committee Demands Obama Administration Info on Marine Monument Designtions
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee has demanded records of all meetings, correspondence and memos related to marine monument designations. The letter references emails that “show representatives from the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pew Charitable Trusts warning their members to avoid talking to the ‘outside world’ about the organizations’ efforts to influence the Administration to announce a Marine National Monument off of New England during the ‘Our Ocean Conference’ in Chile.” The emails in question were originally obtained by Saving Seafood via public records requests, and were first reported by Greenwire. Read the rest here 17:00
US, Chile to announce new marine sanctuaries at “Our Ocean” conference
President Barack Obama will declare new marine sanctuaries in the tidal waters of Maryland and Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan Monday, while Chile is expected to block off a more than 200,000 square miles of sea from commercial fishing and oil and gas exploration in an area of the Pacific Ocean near the world-famous Easter Island. The announcements were to be made when top officials, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, attend an international conference on marine protection in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso on Monday. The “Our Ocean” conference,,, Read the rest here 08:36
Kerry Immersed in Conference on Clean Oceans as Iraq Falls Apart
As Iraq is overrun by terrorists and President Obama said “intensive diplomacy” is needed to solve the crisis, Secretary of State John Kerry is spending the beginning of the week hosting celebs and royalty at Foggy Bottom to discuss clean oceans and climate change. Read more here, read the comments at the article, too! 14:57
Letter From the Editor: ‘Our Fish’
I picked an inopportune moment to ask the top guy for the U.S fisheries industry for a little education on his business. He was among 350-400 participants from 80 nations around the world who were attending Secretary of State John Kerry’s “Our Ocean” Conference in Washington, D.C., last week. Read more here 10:50
