OCEAN: Corridor & more – 11th Jun 2024

Ahoy from BA! This is the Rorshok Ocean Update from the 11th of June twenty twenty-four. A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

Colombia plans to announce negotiations for a treaty with Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador to protect the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor during the twenty twenty-four UN Biodiversity Conference (or COP16), which will take place at the end of October twenty twenty-four in Cali, Colombia. The initiative wants to surpass the voluntary commitments of each country and instead sign a legally binding agreement. The treaty will address the institutional and transnational structure of the Ministerial Committee of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Conservation Corridor (or CMAR), aiming to protect key migratory routes for endangered marine species. The broader goal is to conserve biodiversity and enhance sustainability through international cooperation.

Still on the Pacific Ocean. On Wednesday the 5th, Kimberley Bernard from Greenpeace Australia Pacific published an article on the organization’s website talking about the threat of deep-sea mining to Australia and the Pacific Islands. Despite the bans on offshore mining in two Australian jurisdictions, The Metals Company, led by Australian Gerard Barron, is pushing for mining licenses. Bernard wrote that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also been implicated in promoting deep-sea mining to extract metals worth trillions of dollars needed for practically everything, including the weapons trade. The current Australian government, under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has yet to support a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, despite pressure from local and international communities.

In light of World Environment Day, which took place on Wednesday, the 5th, the UN Development Program (or UNDP) published an article by Munkhtuya Altangerel, the Resident Representative of the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, about the need for coordinated environmental action and resilience in the Pacific Islands to combat climate change and preserve livelihoods. Altangerel pointed out that the Pacific is facing stronger storms and ocean acidification, threatening coral reefs but also life of the communities in the islands. Communities are active in projects like strengthening coastal defenses and restoring mangroves. She suggests advocacy, policy changes, and international support for environmental security, highlighting the importance of community involvement, education, reforestation, and sustainable land management.

Talking about important dates, World Oceans Day is celebrated on the 8th of June. This year, Voice of America News published an article to raise awareness about the vital role oceans play and the impact humans have on them, highlighting threats like plastic pollution, and the depletion of marine life and coral reefs. The article also mentioned activities held on this day all around the world, including beach cleanups, educational discussions, and film screenings, aimed to inform and mobilize the public for sustainable ocean management.

In other news, divers in Key West, Florida, found over a dozen packages of cocaine on Wednesday the 5th, in the Atlantic Ocean, weighing around twenty-five kilograms and marked with the Nike SB logo. The Monroe County sheriff’s office said the divers discovered the packages approximately thirty meters (or 100 feet) underwater, and they mistook them for trash at first. Authorities handed over the packages to the US Border Patrol. This discovery follows recent incidents, including a beachgoer finding thirty kilograms of cocaine in the Florida Keys earlier this month. The state is dealing with high-intensity drug trafficking, showing concerns about the impact on marine life, like sharks consuming the drugs and becoming addicted - especially to cocaine - as we talked about in previous shows.

Moving on, a recent report by the Environmental Justice Foundation reveals illegal fishing and labor abuse within China's distant water fleet in the Southwest Indian Ocean. The report exposes exploitative practices such as shark finning and human rights violations, highlighting concerns about China's investments in the blue economy in the region. The journal Mongabay wrote on Thursday the 6th that, despite previous assertions of a zero-tolerance approach to illegal fishing, China is not adequately addressing these issues. During a recent meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, in mid-May Mongabay remarked that member states rejected China's attempt to limit scrutiny of its fleet, marking a significant victory in efforts to combat illegal fishing activities. The report calls for increased transparency, regulation, and enforcement measures.

On an unrelated note, on Wednesday the 5th, scientists and engineers from NATO's Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation (or CMRE) arrived in Tromsø, Norway, to carry out two research missions in the Arctic Sea to evaluate the impact of climate change. The missions aim to study changes in sonar performance and environmental conditions in the Barents Sea Polar front. NATO is funding both of them, but one will focus on sound propagation, while the other one will gather data on long-term environmental factors. These missions involve researchers from various NATO member countries and will run from the 8th of June to the 12th of July.

From the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey found that the twenty twenty-three Antarctic extensive sea ice loss was an extremely rare event that occurs once every 2,000 years. They analyzed data from eighteen climate models to assess the probability of such an event, finding that climate change greatly exacerbated sea ice loss. This event was very extreme, considering that one-in-100 is already considered rare. The study suggests that even after twenty-years, not all of the sea ice around Antarctica will recover.

The Panama Canal Authority is looking at ways to improve the canal's reliability, like building a new reservoir and keeping pre-booking permanent. As we reported in our previous shows, they had to cut down on daily transits last year due to the drought, causing shipping issues. Now, they've returned to full capacity. The authority wants to make pre-booking a permanent solution and explore building a new reservoir to increase transit capacity. These changes aim to make the canal more dependable amidst changing trade patterns and climate risks.

From Panama to the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal Authority (or SCA) has decided to extend shipping discounts until the end of the year to boost maritime trade. These discounts apply to loaded and empty dry bulk cargo ships operating between ports in Australia and northwestern Europe, starting from the port of Cadiz. They also cover ships between ports in the eastern Americas and Brazil, as well as ports in Asia. Additionally, the SCA extended discounts to ships traveling between ports in Mauritania and those in the Arabian Gulf, India, and the Far East. These measures aim to enhance the competitiveness and efficiency of the Suez Canal, encouraging more vessels to use this shipping route, which became critical because of the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea that we talked about in previous shows.

Let’s have a look at the Black Sea. Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Southern Defense Forces and Navy, said on Monday the 10th on national television that Russia has sent submarines to patrol the Black Sea after Ukraine’s attack on its ships. Recent drone attacks damaged Russian patrol boats. Ukrainian strikes destroyed around 30% of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet by December twenty twenty-three. The submarines, including missile carriers, are actively patrolling the Azov-Black Sea region. Russia is also building structures to safeguard its ships from Ukrainian drone attacks. They are reportedly planning naval exercises in the Azov Sea and have stationed three landing ships and three small missile ships there.

Closing with the Mediterranean Sea. Ten conservation groups and organizations, including OceanCare, World Wildlife Fund, and Greenpeace, are calling on Spain's Ministry for Ecological Transition to enforce a mandatory ten-knot speed limit for ships in the Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor to prevent whale collisions. This corridor is essential for endangered fin whales and sperm whales but suffers from heavy maritime traffic, leading to numerous deaths among these species. Voluntary speed reductions are ineffective. The proposed mandatory limit aims to reduce collision risks and ensure safer conditions for the whales, creating equal conditions for all shipping companies.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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