Saving Seafood

UN Ocean Conference makes progress on protecting marine waters

June 19, 2025 — The United Nations Ocean Conference, held June 9-13 in Nice, France, saw some progress on better protecting the hundreds of thousands of species that live in marine waters and the communities that depend on the sea for work or sustenance. New countries committed to the high seas treaty, a moratorium on deep-sea mining and the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, while a huge group of nations pushed for a strong global plastics treaty.

The conference, which followed previous installments in New York in 2017 and Lisbon in 2022, was a place for members of public and private institutions to exchange ideas and for countries to make pledges.

“I urge all countries to come forward with bold pledges,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in opening remarks on June 9. “We live in an age of turmoil, but the resolve I see here gives me hope.”

In addition to progress on various treaties, several countries moved to create marine protected areas (MPAs) and reserves, or strengthen existing ones, including the announcement of the world’s largest MPA in French Polynesia. Meanwhile, a wide range of groups announced additional marine conservation initiatives.

International agreements

During the conference, 19 countries newly ratified the agreement on marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ), also called the high seas treaty. (International waters are often called the high seas.)

BBNJ will enter into force shortly after 60 countries ratify it. The ratifications in Nice — by countries including Indonesia, Mauritania, Fiji and Belgium — bring the total count to 50 nations.

The enactment of BBNJ is generally regarded as key to the future of marine conservation in the high seas, accounting for more than half of the world’s ocean area. For example, it could lead to the development of large-scale MPAs in the high seas.

“This week’s ratifications of the high seas treaty in Nice mark a major milestone for ocean action. Since the agreement was finalized two years ago, this conference has served as a beacon for nations to work toward ratification,” Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, an umbrella group of NGOs, said in a statement. “But we must keep our foot on the #RaceForRatification accelerator,” she added.

Also in Nice, 95 countries issued a declaration calling for a strong, binding global plastics treaty, which is still under negotiation, with the next round of talks to be held in Geneva in August.

The treaty is aimed at dealing with a severe problem: The equivalent of about 2,000 garbage trucks of plastics are dumped into oceans, rivers and lakes every day. As well, microplastics are abundant in marine ecosystems from the surface to the deep sea.

The most controversial part of the plastics treaty is a proposed cap on plastics production.

Supporters of the cap argue that the production of plastics, which are derived from fossil fuels, is the root of the problem. However, petrostates such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia have vocally resisted such a cap, insisting that the treaty focus on limiting consumption and improving recycling. The petrostates were not among the 95 signatories in Nice, nor were other plastic-producing nations such as the United States, South Korea and China.

Proponents of the cap blame the power of the plastics lobby. The plastics industry draws revenues of roughly $700 billion per year, and production is expected to rise in coming decades.

Officials from many countries, including Colombia, Mexico and France, spoke out for a production cap at the conference, as did speakers from small island developing states.

“We should not have a treaty just so that we have a very nice text — we need to match ambition with action,” Steven Victor, the minister of agriculture, fisheries and environment of Palau, an island in the Pacific Ocean, said at a plastics panel in Nice.

Victor explained to audience members the injustices of the current plastic industry.

“I don’t know if you’ve been to any island,” he said. “You won’t see any plastic being produced. You’ll see our beaches being littered with plastics. No matter how much we try to pick it up, it keeps coming.”

Read the full article at Mongabay 

EU unveils new Ocean Pact at UN Ocean Conference, pledges EUR 1 billion in funding

June 10, 2025 — The European Union recently unveiled the Ocean Pact – a comprehensive strategy it said is intended to protect the ocean and promote a thriving blue economy.

The newly unveiled strategy fulfills a promise made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who pledged to create the strategy in July 2024. The European Ocean Pact was officially adopted on 5 June, and von der Leyen unveiled the new strategy at the start of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, which is running from 9 June through 13 June.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

UN head declares ‘ocean emergency’ as global leaders gather in Lisbon

June 28, 2022 — The UN secretary general has declared that the world is in the middle of an “ocean emergency”, and urged governments to do more to restore ocean health.

Speaking at the opening of the UN ocean conference in Lisbon, Portugal, attended by global leaders and heads of state from 20 countries, António Guterres said: “Sadly, we have taken the ocean for granted and today we face what I would call an ocean emergency. We must turn the tide.”

Guterres said the “egoism” of some nations was hampering efforts to agree a long-awaited treaty to protect the world’s oceans.

In March, UN member states were criticised by scientists and environmentalists for failing to agree on a blueprint for protecting the high seas against exploitation. Of the 64% of the high seas that lie beyond territorial limits, only 1.2% is currently protected.

Read the full story at The Guardian

ARA BUAKAMSRI: Major change for the Thai and global seafood industry

July 27, 2017 — Thailand is on the brink of making real progress toward the elimination of destructive fishing and human rights abuses in its seafood supply chains. As a potential yellow card de-listing from the European Commission looms, it remains to be seen whether the country will take the steps needed to fully meet the standards to eliminate human rights abuse in the seafood industry.

It’s fair to say that Thai authorities have made progress in key areas, including reforms to the legal and regulatory framework for fishing that was drawn up in 1947, along with improvements to and the enforcement of labour regulations. At the UN Ocean Conference in New York this year, Thai delegates announced a voluntary commitment to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by rigorously controlling, monitoring, and inspecting all Thai-flagged fishing vessels operating inside and outside Thai waters. A key piece of this commitment is to eliminate all IUU fishing in Thai fishing fleets by 2019.

Understandably, this progress has been met with criticism, seen by some as insufficient and cosmetic.

Read the full opinion piece at the Bangkok Post

An Ocean in Chains: Reviewing SDG 14 in Advance of the HLPF

July 6, 2017 — Five meetings in 2017 are pivotal for global efforts to save the ocean, including the July 2017 meeting of the High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF). Parties to the Port State Measures Agreement (on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing) convened for the first meeting of the Parties in May, to set forth its implementation. In June, the first-ever Ocean Conference convened at UN Headquarters in New York. In July, the HLPF will review progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 14) on life below water, as one of seven SDGs to receive special attention. In parallel to the HLPF, a UN preparatory committee will discuss recommendations to the UN General Assembly on negotiating a treaty on the management of marine biological diversity in the high seas. And, in December, the World Trade Organization will hold its eleventh Ministerial Conference, during which many are hoping fisheries subsidies will be on the agenda. While these meetings are not the only important ocean events occurring in 2017, they will influence how stakeholders, from governments to civil society to individuals, will approach ocean issues going forward.

This policy update reviews themes threading through these meetings as reported by the SDG Knowledge Hub. It provides readers with background knowledge, recalls how the international policy community has framed prominent ocean issues, and looks forward to the next steps. This update follows the structure used in the ‘2017 HLPF Thematic Review of SDG 14’ (HLPF Brief), lightly canvassing the issues of pollution, acidification and climate change, marine spatial planning/marine protected areas (MPAs), small-scale fisheries (SSF), subsidies, research, and linkages.

To begin, the Ocean Conference is to be celebrated simply for existing. The guest article ‘SDG at Sea‘ recounts the rise of the ocean in the global sustainable agenda, going from the absence of ocean issues in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to becoming the largest substantive section of the ‘The Future We Want,’ to eventually securing a stand-alone goal among the 17 SDGs. The June Ocean Conference was a key moment for the global ocean policy community, which came together to identify and discuss solutions to ocean challenges. It concluded with a negotiated ‘Call for Action’ and over 1,300 voluntary commitments announced by an array of stakeholders (governments, civil society and the private sector) to tackle ocean-specific problems.

Read the full story at the International Institute for Sustainable Development

HÉCTOR SOLDI: Clear waters, clear hearts: Now is the time for more transparency in our oceans

July 5, 2017 — Last month, leaders from around the world gathered in New York City for the United Nations’ Ocean Conference. The UN Ocean Conference was an opportunity for countries to discuss how we will implement one of the organization’s key conservation goals — how to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

As Peru’s vice minister of fisheries and aquaculture, I came to the UN Ocean Conference to announce a major new transparency measure we are undertaking to demonstrate our commitment to sustainable management of our marine resources.

Peru is making its national vessel tracking data publicly available through Global Fishing Watch, an organization that provides the first global view of commercial fishing activity. Global Fishing Watch already uses public broadcast data collected by satellite and terrestrial receivers to show the movement of vessels over time and identify fishing activity. The addition of our government’s data to the platform will provide the world with an even clearer view of fishing activity in our oceans.

We are also pleased to have been joined by Indonesia, which fulfilled a similar transparency commitment the country made in 2015. Indonesia’s vessel tracking data is now public and available for the first time through Global Fishing Watch.

Read the full opinion piece at The Hill

At the UN Ocean Conference, Recognizing an Unseen Pollutant: Noise

June 9, 2017 — As we mark World Oceans Day today, it is safe to say that of all the threats facing the world’s oceans in the 21st Century, the most tangible (and visible) of these is pollution. Televised images of oil spills in a once-pristine location have become the very definition of environmental disaster, while firsthand encounters with plastics and debris on a beach or floating offshore serve to remind us that no corner of the earth is completely free of human-produced refuse.

Pollution is also a major topic of discussion at this week’s United Nations Ocean Conference in New York City. The event brings together governmental leaders, conservationists, scientists, and others from all corners of the globe to focus on the ocean, its future, and sustainable development.

The discussions include efforts to conserve the world’s oceans, seas, and marine resources while minimizing threats such as climate change, overfishing, and a frightening array of pollutants ranging from solid waste runoff, hazardous chemicals, wastewater, and plastics that all flow seaward from our cities, farms, and coastal dwellings.

Some UN delegates are also focusing on another kind of pollution, one that is invisible and temporary but devastating to many marine animals: noise. Noise pollution has to be recognized as a threat to whales, dolphins, and other species, and was the focus of a specific workshop at the UN conference that my colleagues and I at Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) organized with a number of partners last February.

Whales, which live in and migrate between marine habitats (some with considerable levels of maritime transport and other industrial activities), are particularly at risk from noise. These underwater blasts can disrupt behaviors and prevent these marine mammals from finding food and communicating with one another.

Read the full story at National Geographic 

North Atlantic, Inc. and Subsidiary Bali Seafood International Commit to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

May 15, 2017 — The following was released by North Atlantic Seafood:

Today, North Atlantic, Inc. and its subsidiary Bali Seafood International announced their commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These commitments mark the first by a U.S. seafood company to be published with the UN’s Voluntary Commitment Registry in advance of the upcoming UN Ocean Conference. 

Adopted in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of international development objectives aimed at poverty elimination, environmental stability, and global peace and prosperity. The 17 goals, each with specific targets–169 in total–are to be met over an ambitious 15-year timeline.

Recognizing the strong linkages between multiple SDGs and the companies’ work in Indonesian artisanal fishing communities, North Atlantic, Inc. (NAI) and Bali Seafood International (BSI) have solidified a time-bound commitment touching on three specific SDGs.

The Ocean Conference Voluntary Commitment Registry is geared toward SDG 14 in particular, which aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” As such, the first three committed deliverables from NAI/BSI fall directly under the targets of this ocean-focused Goal.

With a target date set at 2020 to align with SDG 14 timelines, NAI/BSI will work to build and operationalize up to four integrated fishery centers to support the sustainable management and use of nearshore fisheries in Indonesia’s eastern archipelago, thereby providing a platform to trial and scale their private sector-led investment model for environmentally and socially responsible fisheries.

To support SDG 14’s strong emphasis on ensuring legal fishing around the globe, NAI and BSI are also committing to collecting data from every vessel in their supply chain by 2020 through either passive tracking units or e-log catch documentation. This information will be used to support real-time stock assessment, fishery controls, and community-based enforcement.

Beyond SDG 14, NAI and BSI will work towards targets under SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), particularly the ambition to halve global food waste by 2030. By establishing fishery centers with cold storage and processing directly in artisanal fishing communities, NAI/BSI aim to eliminate the estimated 40-60% waste in produce value inherent to the current system.

Finally, recognizing the collaboration required to achieve the SDGs, NAI/BSI is turning its eye to SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) and seeking to strengthen its partnerships on all of the above objectives going forward.

“The mission of the Sustainable Development Goals directly echoes that of North Atlantic and Bali Seafood. From supporting local community development to ensuring product traceability and legality, our business values are perfectly aligned with this effort,” said Gerald Knecht, President and Founder of NAI/BSI. “Achieving the SDGs will absolutely require cooperation across stakeholders and sectors, but we also recognize our individual responsibility as a company to align our strategies with the Goals. We’re proud to be amongst those leading the seafood industry to contribute to this common vision for the future.”

“We’re proud to work with a company so thoroughly committed to advancing the goals set by the United Nations,” said Bill Wall, Distributor Division Director at FishWise, a nonprofit sustainable seafood consultancy that has partnered with North Atlantic, Inc. to help them identify the SDGs they are most well-positioned to positively influence. “We look forward to collaborating further towards successful outcomes for all deliverables.”

About North Atlantic, Inc.

North Atlantic, Inc. (NAI) is an importer of wild-caught seafood serving both traditional and emerging food retail channels. Since 1986, NAI has guided top-tier retailers in ensuring supply chain visibility and responsible harvesting methods. PT Bali Seafood International, subsidiary of North Atlantic, Inc., is the parent company’s local processor and leads the development of their community-based fisheries management initiative. For more information, please contact NAI at 207-774-6025 or via email at info@northatlanticseafood.com.

About Bali Seafood International

Bali Seafood International (BSI), the Indonesian subsidiary of North Atlantic Inc., is an exporter of fully traceable, wild-caught seafood. BSI has pioneered an integrated fisheries management model focusing on three key areas: 1) building local community support in pursuit of sustainable resource harvesting, 2) driving positive social impact in the communities in which it works, and 3) providing hook-to-plate transparency for its consumers.