Saving Seafood

UN Special Envoy for the Ocean: We can’t let COVID-19 widen the door for IUU fishing

May 26, 2020 — The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new considerations with regards to social distancing and travel restrictions, and these have had a significant impact on the monitoring, control, and surveillance of fisheries activities.

This is a particular worry for developing countries that are vulnerable to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and there’s evidence that these conditions – with fewer active inspectors and observers – are being exploited by unscrupulous operators, according to the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Ambassador Peter Thomson.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Nations Will Start Talks to Protect Fish of the High Seas

August 2, 2017 — UNITED NATIONS — More than half of the world’s oceans belong to no one, which often makes their riches ripe for plunder.

Now, countries around the world have taken the first step to protect the precious resources of the high seas. In late July, after two years of talks, diplomats at the United Nations recommended starting treaty negotiations to create marine protected areas in waters beyond national jurisdiction — and in turn, begin the high-stakes diplomatic jostling over how much to protect and how to enforce rules.

“The high seas are the biggest reserve of biodiversity on the planet,” Peter Thomson, the ambassador of Fiji and current president of the United Nations General Assembly, said in an interview after the negotiations. “We can’t continue in an ungoverned way if we are concerned about protecting biodiversity and protecting marine life.”

Without a new international system to regulate all human activity on the high seas, those international waters remain “a pirate zone,” Mr. Thomson said.

Lofty ambitions, though, are likely to collide with hard-knuckled diplomatic bargaining. Some countries resist the creation of a new governing body to regulate the high seas, arguing that existing regional organizations and rules are sufficient. The commercial interests are powerful. Russian and Norwegian vessels go to the high seas for krill fishing; Japanese and Chinese vessels go there for tuna. India and China are exploring the seabed in international waters for valuable minerals. Many countries are loath to adopt new rules that would constrain them.

Read the full story at the New York Times

UN official visits Woods Hole to recruit scientist advocates

April 11, 2017 — Standing in a high-ceilinged work bay on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Quissett Campus, United Nations General Assembly President Peter Thomson was surrounded by sophisticated ocean sensors, robot gliders and moorings that towered overhead, bristling with technology.

“As a young boy in Fiji, I read my National Geographic, and saw the photos of Woods Hole and bathyscaphe sailing out of here, and this has always been a place where I thought, at least there’s some place where the good science is going on,” Thomson told scientists and media Friday at a briefing held during his tour of the institution’s facilities.

Thomson said he came to WHOI to ask that the organization send scientists to the upcoming UN Ocean Conference, which will be held June 5-9 in New York City.

“I’m an advocate, I’m not a scientist,” Thomson said. “It’s very important to me if I can seduce these guys at Woods Hole to come down and play an active role.”

WHOI Director Mark Abbott embraced Thomson’s request.

“It is a recommitment of a lot of things we do and we will be an active participant,” Abbott said.

WHOI is already involved in international research and projects, and had a program that sponsored scientists from around the world doing research at the institution, he said.

Thomson is a career civil servant and diplomat, has been his country’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York since 2010, and served as the Fijian Ambassador to Cuba until he was selected as President of the General Assembly this year.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times