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OSLO (Reuters) - The world should do more to set up protected zones in the oceans to shield depleted fish stocks from the ravages of trawlers and pollution, the United Nations (news - web sites) said on Saturday.
"Society can no longer view the world's oceans as a convenient dumping ground for our waste, or as an unlimited source of plenty," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said in a statement to mark World Environment Day on June 5.
"Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive?," is the slogan for the 2004 June 5 annual event marked around the world.
Annan said almost 75 percent of fish stocks, from cod to tuna, are caught faster than they can breed. And plastic waste alone -- like supermarket bags -- kills a million sea birds a year, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish.
Saying urgent action was needed, Annan noted that governments agreed at an Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 to try to restore depleted fish stocks by 2015 and to set up more protected marine areas, like wildlife parks on land, by 2012.
"This last goal...is especially important," he wrote. "Less than 0.5 percent of marine habitats are protected -- compared with 11.5 percent of global land area."
"Studies show that protecting critical marine habitats, such as warm- and cold- water coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves can dramatically increase fish size and quality," he said.
But one expert said that some ecosystems may be so depleted that it may be impossible to revive stocks by banning fishing.
COD STOCKS FAIL TO RECOVER
"It's like if you load too much on a camel -- you can't expect him to jump up again if you remove the load that has just broken his back," Katherine Richardson, a professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Reuters.
When large fish like cod are almost gone, smaller species may thrive and gobble the young of any survivors. Cod stocks off Newfoundland, Canada, have failed to recover despite a 1992 ban.
Activists around the globe plan to clean up beaches, plant trees and encourage people to shift to renewable energies like solar or wind power to mark June 5, the date a first global summit on the environment was held in Stockholm in 1972.
In Greece, divers aim to remove waste including dumped cars and refrigerators near Athens. About 300 people were expected to turn up to clean the beach at Thoothukudi in India.
On Friday, the U.N. Environment program sounded the alarm about threats to little-understood cold-water corals, saying that the less glamorous cousins of tropical corals were vital "kindergartens for fish."
Greenpeace also called for an immediate ban on high-seas bottom trawling.
Events scheduled for Saturday even include exhibits at the British Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) -- which maintains the nation's nuclear arsenal -- to educate staff about how to protect the environment at work and at home.
"Like any other large industrial complex we are aware that our operations can have the potential to harm the environment," AWE said in a statement.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040604/sc_nm/environment_oceans_dc_2
"Society can no longer view the world's oceans as a convenient dumping ground for our waste, or as an unlimited source of plenty," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said in a statement to mark World Environment Day on June 5.
"Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive?," is the slogan for the 2004 June 5 annual event marked around the world.
Annan said almost 75 percent of fish stocks, from cod to tuna, are caught faster than they can breed. And plastic waste alone -- like supermarket bags -- kills a million sea birds a year, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish.
Saying urgent action was needed, Annan noted that governments agreed at an Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 to try to restore depleted fish stocks by 2015 and to set up more protected marine areas, like wildlife parks on land, by 2012.
"This last goal...is especially important," he wrote. "Less than 0.5 percent of marine habitats are protected -- compared with 11.5 percent of global land area."
"Studies show that protecting critical marine habitats, such as warm- and cold- water coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves can dramatically increase fish size and quality," he said.
But one expert said that some ecosystems may be so depleted that it may be impossible to revive stocks by banning fishing.
COD STOCKS FAIL TO RECOVER
"It's like if you load too much on a camel -- you can't expect him to jump up again if you remove the load that has just broken his back," Katherine Richardson, a professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Reuters.
When large fish like cod are almost gone, smaller species may thrive and gobble the young of any survivors. Cod stocks off Newfoundland, Canada, have failed to recover despite a 1992 ban.
Activists around the globe plan to clean up beaches, plant trees and encourage people to shift to renewable energies like solar or wind power to mark June 5, the date a first global summit on the environment was held in Stockholm in 1972.
In Greece, divers aim to remove waste including dumped cars and refrigerators near Athens. About 300 people were expected to turn up to clean the beach at Thoothukudi in India.
On Friday, the U.N. Environment program sounded the alarm about threats to little-understood cold-water corals, saying that the less glamorous cousins of tropical corals were vital "kindergartens for fish."
Greenpeace also called for an immediate ban on high-seas bottom trawling.
Events scheduled for Saturday even include exhibits at the British Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) -- which maintains the nation's nuclear arsenal -- to educate staff about how to protect the environment at work and at home.
"Like any other large industrial complex we are aware that our operations can have the potential to harm the environment," AWE said in a statement.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040604/sc_nm/environment_oceans_dc_2
