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Roy Mulder

President, Marine Life Sanctuaries Society of BC

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Will a voluntary citizen based campaign work to protect the ocean? If so, what can be done?

We currently protect less than 1% of the world's oceans. 90% of the world's fish stocks are gone. Can we as a society start a voluntary initiative to protect at least 30% of the world's ocean. It is evident that current extraction from the ocean is not sustainable. Very few countries are doing their part to create Marine Sanctuaries on their coasts.
How can we join all the voices to work together on this? Many organizations are busy with "process", few are actually doing something about it. Most governments are not actively pursuing a program to work towards setting aside areas to be fully protected.

Topics: Marine Conservation Marine Protected Areas Marine Sanctuaries
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    Roy Mulder

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    Jun 13 2011: @Julie Ann, You seem to think that the UN has some sort of legal ability to apply laws and protection. Unfortunately this is not the case. there are vast areas of the ocean that have no connection to any countries jurisdiction. We currently protect less than 1% of the world's oceans. We cannot rely on our governments to implement protection in time to stop the world's fish stocks to fully collapse. We have already done an incredible amount of damage. Ocean acidification and global warming are threatening the ocean and everything in it. I'm afraid you have a false sense of confidence in the UN Convention.
    The only solution is for people to act locally and join local marine conservation initiatives.

    • Julie Ann 10+

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      Jun 20 2011: Hi Roy, I am quite aware of the state of the oceans and share your concern. I am afraid I did not make my lack of confidence in the UN to undertake such a task, quite clear. It would be helpful, however for you to elaborate on your strategy for individuals to protect the world's oceans. You state "Many organizations are busy with "process", few are actually doing something about it. Most governments are not actively pursuing a program to work towards setting aside areas to be fully protected."
      It appears that you advocate some kind of activism by individuals, but that is not clear from your statement. Can you elaborate on your solution?

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