Several Turkish specialists welcomed the United Nations’s current landmark settlement on defending biodiversity in excessive seas, describing it as “promising” to carry potential for the additional exploration and safeguarding of seas and oceans.
Members of the U.N. unanimously adopted the first-ever treaty to guard marine life within the excessive seas on Monday, with the U.N.’s chief hailing the historic settlement as giving the ocean “a fighting chance.”
The settlement, specializing in the destructive impacts of local weather change, overfishing and delivery site visitors on biodiversity, will impose restrictions on fishing actions on the excessive seas and limitations on sea mines, maritime transport routes and exploration actions.
Bayram Öztürk, the top of the Marine Biology Department at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Aquatic Sciences and the president of the Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TÜDAV), elaborated on the settlement’s particulars.
In a current interview with Anadolu Agency (AA), he highlighted that the settlement goals to declare 30% of the world’s seas and oceans as protected areas by 2030.
Öztürk additionally emphasised the settlement’s influence on Türkiye and its surrounding seas. He defined that whereas the protected areas within the Central Mediterranean might doubtlessly pose challenges for Türkiye, because the nation depends on open sea areas and engages in tuna fishing close to the coast of Malta; he stated that the nation has developed its personal initiative within the Finike Underwater Mountains.
“It has nothing to do with land (structures). It’s a protected area in the open seas. This area needs to be expanded and enlarged more because a country like Türkiye needs to take the lead in protecting the high seas,” he stated.
“You have given the oceans a new chance of hope and struggle,” stated U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his assertion on the settlement’s adoption.
“The protection of the oceans means that there will be no human activity. It means that there will be no fishing, no oil extraction, no seabed mining, and these measures instill hope for the health and well-being of our oceans,” Öztürk added.
He additionally highlighted the first challenges associated to open seas, emphasizing air pollution and rising temperatures as probably the most vital issues. In addition, the oceans are witnessing the formation of in depth plastic islands and a rising proliferation of invasive species.
Over the previous 50 years, the Mediterranean Sea has skilled an alarming temperature improve of roughly 1.5-2 levels. Considering these considerations, Öztürk underlined that the difficulty regarding protected areas needs to be adopted completely.
Professor Cem Gazioğlu, Director of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Management at Istanbul University, commented on the lately signed United Nations settlement, saying that it represents a big step towards preserving the well being of the oceans in all points.
Noting that the settlement on the conservation of organic variety might be seen as an extension of the settlement on defending open seas, Gazioğlu emphasised that the brand new settlement units the groundwork for preserving biodiversity.
According to Gazioğlu, the newly established settlement is about to carry rules for offshore mining, which at the moment operates with restricted oversight.
“Presently, these mining operations are conducted without any adherence to rules or regulations. I think that these agreements, however, will provide the necessary foundation for the betterment of humanity,” he stated.
Noting that some 70% of species found across the globe yearly have seas as their habitats, Gazioğlu acknowledged {that a} huge a part of the ocean waters stays unknown to mankind. “
There remains to be rather a lot to study, know and analysis on the seas; these agreements present the bottom for them,” he concluded.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
