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Experts flag threat of plastic pollution in oceans
Plastic in oceans is among the biggest threats to marine life in India, a global survey involving marine scientists has said. A total of 58 ocean experts from 19 countries participated in the survey.
Ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference scheduled from June 9 to 13 in Nice, France, Indian ocean experts have flagged the issue of plastic pollution in oceans along the Indian coastline.
UNOC is the most ambitious environmental conference after the 2015 Paris Climate Conference which led to the Paris Agreement, French officials said in a briefing on Friday.
“Ten years after COP21 and the Paris Agreement, UNOC-3 represents a historic opportunity to establish a binding global framework, and the Nice Agreement will constitute a real international pact for the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean,” officials said.
Plastic in oceans is among the biggest threats to marine life in India, a global survey involving marine scientists has said. A total of 58 ocean experts from 19 countries participated in the survey.
“It is alarming that around 5% of marine catch from coastal waters contains plastic waste”, said Sunil Mohamed, Chair of the Sustainable Seafood Network of India and former principal scientist at the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) who is one of three experts from India who participated in the survey. He called for strict measures to tackle the menace through coordinated and joint efforts of public and government agencies. “There is inherent resilience in ocean ecosystems, and hence good fisheries management and environmental care could greatly help to restore the ecosystems.”
“The main problem is whatever ends up in our rivers and lakes or even in streams in the hilly regions will eventually come to the sea if the waste is not properly collected and disposed of. Aquatic life including fish mainly consume phyto plankton and other plankton. The degraded plastic is mistaken to be plankton and consumed by aquatic life which finally also ends up in the bodies of consumers who are consuming fish and other seafood,” said S Sabu, Associate Professor, Cochin University of Science and Technology, one of the other Indian experts who participated in the survey.
“This also applies to use of pesticides, industrial waste, fertilizers on land which will end up downstream. These carry pollutants and carcinogenic compounds. I highlighted these issues to the MSC,” he added. MSC is an international non-profit organisation, working with over 700 fisheries worldwide.
The majority of the scientists were of the view that climate change is the greatest threat to ocean health and biodiversity as it causes ocean warming, sea level rise, and changes in ocean currents and weather patterns among many other impacts. Marine pollution, overfishing and changes to marine habitats also ranked highly in terms of impact, the survey revealed.
“Scientists from every single inhabited continent agree ocean biodiversity is under threat but there is still reason for optimism if we act now to save it for the future,” MSC said last week.
The UNOC 3 conference, co-organised by France and Costa Rica, has three priorities. “First, we want to advocate for the successful conclusion of multilateral processes related to the ocean, in terms of governance and Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreements. The high seas treaty cannot be a failure. If we do not seize the opportunity of UNOC-3, we risk wasting precious years for the sustainable management of the ocean. We’re still far from having all the signatories to ratify BBNG throughout the world, but if we manage to get to 60 at the end of the year, that’s achievable,” a French official said. BBNJ is a legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. India has already signed the BBNJ Treaty last year but not ratified it yet.
“India is proud to join the BBNJ Agreement, an important step towards ensuring that our oceans remain healthy and resilient,” external affairs minister S Jaishankar said in a post on X after signing the treaty at the United Nations headquarters in New York in September last year.
UNOC’s second priority is to must mobilize public and private funding to achieve SDG 14 (sustainable development goal 14 of the 17 such goals listed by the UN in 2015) which seeks to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” and support a sustainable blue economy. The third priority is to better disseminate oceanographic knowledge in order to inform global public policy with open access to data, officials said.
