production, consumption, and extraction, and the lack of policies. Do not start looking where the habits or procedures to shift, please, are already known: not saved even one habit.
Who is affected by? "Everyone" is affected (I am putting on the bag to beings with fins, beak, wings, scales, chloroplasts, leaves ... and those with two legs and useless brain). But, what is the problem? Imagine your stomach or intestines are clogged with indigestible food, or you are choking with a belt, or a tape cuts off your blood circulation, or that you cannot have children more, or your skeleton is slowly undoing. These sorts of troubles are the issues that barely anyone faces.
Recent studies conducted in some sea systems, have shown a foreseeable fact: cyclically, the trend in volume stocks of marine fish has been linked to environmental trends of conditions as salinity, levels of nutrients, water flows, not always decreasing, but also increasing! And some voices specialized in aquaculture or water management now recognize that we have never made the slightest attempt to exploit the natural dynamics to favor us, thereby improving the life, health and availability of the seas as resources. In other words, we have not even planted: we only have "collected".
If you have the interest, you could read a strong report from Life in the World's Oceans. Is not the sole report, but is extensive: anyway, you have other studies even online disposable to see.
Understanding it as a bug wet garden.
Is on earth? Really our life is on land? Does not have been our life also the fishing? If not, what is that we are selling and buying, taking and trading with, that we are eating in our dishes? It is not our "land" our aqueous land? Nobody will tell us clearly anything about this confusing play of words, because it implies to share and free the truly meaning of the assets, the resources, the commons: and that is just what is the sea, a Common Good, this kind of things that belong to everybody and to nobody at the same time. Quickly someone could answer me, that some resources needs a big investment to turn it into valuable and allowable goods to every. But the use we could have made from the resources influences largely over a complex assembly of aspects, which barely you and nobody has heard. The sea (as whole) is harboring a huge life-machine, and its overall operation has aspects about we know almost nothing. But we may understand some situations happening on depths. An example will help to introduce us about it.
This is an imaginary story: imagine for a while that you have a parcel planted with ten varieties of vegetables, which grow fast and forcefully, but an important issue forces you to leave the household and go away for a long time. You have not any sidekick, neither assistant or keeper, and you go out abroad for two years. What do you hope find at your back home? The half of crops? Some of them have disappeared? You are clever and do not need to think about it too much, you already guess perfectly that, at your back home you will find all crops destroyed, all got away, anything have left there. But more important is one fact you will notice: you will be able to see that a big part of the beautiful soles were thrown away by have been considered useless, disposable, unworthy, and still are there in the ground, decaying. The thieves took the best, and they threw what they were not interested. Your neighbors may understand you immediately, since all of you feel clearly and doubtless that the steal was made taking advantage of the lack of witnesses, so nobody could be witness. That is what has happened, and is happening currently today with all the seas.
Now you can understand what was of seas since at least fifty years ago, the time when appeared the improved technologies (background radar, factory ships, freezers, specialized networks, satellite positioning) and the flag of convenience acquired, its higher value. The figures of world fishing are terrifying. It has been, I am sorry and feels sad myself writing it, the theft of the forty thieves at the public pool. Once again, is not wrong the act, is wrong the use done: and the researches conducted have as ending goal into the upper offices as much set how much to reduce catches, never learn to manage.
Nobody can see anything. Who go come to avoid nothing? On the sea, we are all “amicable friends” somehow, we share some kind of agreement or deal, and we hide the ones each other. And the word “we” mean "all those who are fishing and selling fish,” but only those ones. The rest of us only buy and keep unaware of the full loss of our "oceanic lands".
Imagine multiplied by three all the arable lands, waste lands, mountains, deserts, lagoons… all in the world, and now you already have an outline quite real of the steal and devastation practiced, before and now into the seas. Imagine for a moment that only remains just a 10% of arable lands, and no more. A question like “how many fish remains in the ocean waters” turns in a bad joke. A first mistake is the nonsense idea as such that the sea is only a place to find and bring fish so easily, and even you can go there investing a lot of money and grab all you can. Unfortunately that is true, and we go see now some key points about this.
What has had a policy and what did not had.
In parallel to business groups, agreements, rules, and associations of commercial and trading character, were created and unfolded a lot of Conferences, Organisms, Organizations since the IUCN (1948) until now. Of course, all this has been accompanied by its linked funds. Some apparently clear ideas surged after all it: the transgenerational and transboundary character of environmental problems, and the new concept which has become a brand for new business: the sustainable development!
It is surprising the counter directions that we can see: by one side, the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) since 1993-1994 as binding and legislative accord; the Framework Convention on Climate Change since 1994 (UNFCCC) as accord over the atmospheric emissions of pollutants; the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) since 1994, which leads to fight the desertification and drought (on land). By the other side, the loss of lands, forests, wetlands, species, diversity, fisheries, has not decreased, but gone backward. Then, what works really? The answer is: business. Where are here the seas? Keep calm.
There are only a few principles in international law that rule: yes, states must be diligent in prevention in front of third parties; must protect and preserve environments; should standardize rules for behavior; must respect the primary rights from other states; must keep the control over private producers; should share and publicize the information, and inform about coming accidents, assess the impacts produced, to be cautious and prudent, do not transfer harms to others, and make the best practices making use of better technologies. All right, very good all this.
In all the cases the negotiation shows to be the most important tool for solve the problems among states (when they are rubbing). Good! That is good really! Although this set of accomplishments and proposals and so magnificent and strenuous efforts, have been emptied almost all seas. The pity is that the sea has not control far away of shore. There is not control, nothing at all. The sea is not in land of anyone. Yeah! It is our time; we have freedom for move.
Now we go reckon what has been written on black over white. The classic law for seas (since the XVI century) was modified in 1938 and 1958-1960 on the Hague Conference, and four accords were signed: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS (the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty); the Treat about marine shelf; the Convention on the territorial sea and contiguous zone; and the Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High Sea.
Then already appeared concerns as the pollution generalization, and lowering and impoverishment of fisheries (furthermore of nuclear test on the seas by a few states, as you can see in this endeavored work here of Isao Hashimoto), and it was treated the limit of 3 nautical miles of coastal sovereignty. Also were defined the 200 mile exclusive economic zone, the 24 mile contiguous zone, and the double law regime for natural straits, with innocent passage and free transit passage in international ones. This means agreeing on what is interesting.
This 200 miles (EEZ) is place for conflicts -barring the African countries, whose shores has been almost free for
everybody-, because all activities included in the zone must be done without blocking the traffic, but in the case of fishing this must be allowed when the coastal state does not has enough means to do it by himself -good, some of them have only meager tools for it. Finally, all that means all bigger fleets have been able to fish wherever they wanted.
Still more my friend reader, referring to highly migratory species (note 5) and straddling stocks: the states must protect these species only as duty as they can, but no more, so it is to say nothing. In addition, there has been no regulation around the fishing gears, neither in the more valuable zones. And, the mineral resources in the ocean floor... have not been regulated. And the polar area... has been sliced as a pie at triangular areas.
The International Court of Justice treats usually only the cases when the State resources are affected, there are effects over resources or health and losses, and fall over private or State assets. Even differences are striking among cases: disputes as the initial between the US and Canada, are far from the current Niger River case with the Shell company: when seas are the nucleus of trials, nothing is
An Invisible Chain of our Time Page 23