World Oceans Day - What it means for the Pacific
Celebrating World Oceans Day: Message from the Acting Director General of SPREP, Mr Stuart Chape
World
Oceans Day has been celebrated each year since 1992. We have witnessed
increasing world attention on our oceans, particularly in the face of
extreme climate impacts, alarming pollution
loads and competition for ocean resources.
World
Oceans Day 2018 in the Pacific has particular significance for us. The
Pacific is celebrating the International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2018
and Pacific Year of Coral Reefs (PYOCR) 2018-2019
and our 25th Year Anniversary.
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| Pledging for a Plastic Free Ocean with SPREP |
Coral reefs are a critical
part of the ocean world in which we live. They support a major part of
our daily subsistence needs and economies; they provide a living wall
of protection from ocean waves; and much of
our cultural identity is linked with our reefs and ocean. SPREP and
our partners have several activities underway in 2018 and 2019 to
campaign for coral reefs and assist our member countries in
strengthening coral reef management capacity.
On
World Oceans Day we recognise the immense beauty and values of the
Ocean, but also remind ourselves of the immense work needed to address
the increasing problems of climate change, ocean
warming, ocean acidification, over-extraction of resources and the
impacts these all have on coral reefs, fisheries, biodiversity and a
host of other biological and ecological processes in our Ocean.
The
degradation and loss of coral reefs means reduced protection of our
coastal areas, declining fish for food security and lowered resilience
of our island communities and economies. We are
all contributors to these impacts, and each of us are affected in some
way, so we should all be involved in designing and implementing joint
solutions towards regaining a healthy Pacific Ocean. What we do on
land directly affects the waters and life in
our coastal and ocean environments. SPREP and our partner organisations
in the Pacific are working towards improving multi-sectoral governance
and integrated management of our islands and ocean, where holistic
thinking and solutions are needed to re-build
ocean health.
2018
is also a year when the world has focussed on marine debris and marine
plastics, with several countries recognising the hidden impacts of
micro-plastics on the ocean. Plastics, heavy
metals and other pollutants are consumed by marine organisms, with
numerous lethal and other impacts. These impacts eventually reach humans
as well through the fish we consume. Other species of conservation
importance like sea turtles and whales are caught
in discarded or abandoned fishing gear, and usually suffer slow, cruel
deaths.
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| Branching coral spawning (Photo credit - Jayne Jenkins |
As
the Pacific region's inter-governmental organisation for the
environment, SPREP with its partners assists its member countries and
territories to better manage and conserve their ocean resources
through programmes and projects on best practice island and coastal
zone management, marine spatial planning, marine protected area
management, coral reef management and monitoring, invasive marine
species management, conservation of threatened and migratory
marine species such as sea turtles and whales, waste management and
pollution control. Our role extends to assisting countries in building
their resilience to impacts of climate change, including ocean warming,
ocean acidification, sea level rise and more.
I
encourage all of you to celebrate the magnificence and importance of
oceans today, but to use this moment to inspire discussion on how we can
all better use the oceans, helping each other
in protecting the health of our oceans. We can each do more, such as
being careful not to over use our ocean resources and to not abuse our
ocean habitats with thoughtless dumping of our wastes and pollutants.
These and much more, are some of the things
we must do not only on World Oceans Day, but from this day forward.
I
want to acknowledge all those people who are working to help re-build
the health of our oceans, and wish everyone a memorable World Oceans Day
for 2018.
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