UN Ocean Endorsement of Animal Welfare in Capture Fisheries
We are excited to announce a new advancement for aquatic animals: Our work in best practices in capture fisheries welfare has been endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) as part of the UN Ocean Decade Action!
Our project, Advocating for Humane Capture Fisheries to Support Ocean and Fisheries Sustainability, will form part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030, hosted under UN Ocean Challenge 5. Ocean Best Practices for the Decade. The project underwent extensive review by the IOC Secretariat and its endorsement marks an important step in our efforts to protect aquatic animal welfare.
What is the UN Ocean Decade?
Proclaimed in 2017 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), or the ‘Ocean Decade’, seeks to stimulate ocean science and knowledge generation to reverse the decline of the state of the ocean system and catalyze new opportunities for sustainable development of this massive marine ecosystem.
The vision of the Ocean Decade is ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’. The Ocean Decade provides a convening framework for scientists and stakeholders from diverse sectors to develop the scientific knowledge and the partnerships needed to accelerate and harness advances in ocean science to achieve a better understanding of the ocean system, and deliver science-based solutions to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The UN General Assembly mandated UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) to coordinate the preparations and implementation of the Decade.
What is the UN Decade of Ocean Science?
The United Nations has proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health and gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework to ensure that ocean science can fully support countries in creating improved conditions for sustainable development of the Ocean.
Given the multiple stresses facing our oceans, adaptation strategies and science-informed policy responses are urgently needed. Scientific understanding of the ocean’s responses to pressures and management action is fundamental to predicting and understanding changes to our oceans, designing mitigation and guiding adaptation.
What are the Ocean Decade challenges?
The 10 Ocean Decade challenges are:
Challenge 1: Understand and beat marine pollution
Challenge 2: Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity
Challenge 3: Sustainably feed the global population
Challenge 4: Develop a sustainable and equitable ocean economy
Challenge 5: Unlock ocean-based solutions to climate change
Challenge 6: Increase community resilience to ocean hazards
Challenge 7: Expand the Global Ocean Observing System
Challenge 8: Create a digital representation of the Ocean
Challenge 9: Skills, knowledge, and technology for all
Challenge 10: Change humanity’s relationship with the ocean
The 7 expected outcomes are:
A clean ocean where sources of pollution are identified and reduced or removed.
A healthy and resilient ocean where marine ecosystems are understood, protected, restored and managed.
A productive ocean supporting sustainable food supply and a sustainable ocean economy.
A predicted ocean where society understands and can respond to changing ocean conditions.
A safe ocean where life and livelihoods are protected from ocean-related hazards.
An accessible ocean with open and equitable access to data, information and technology and innovation.
An inspiring and engaging ocean where society understands and values the ocean in relation to human wellbeing and sustainable development.
How will we contribute?
Our project, Advocating for Humane Capture Fisheries to Support Ocean and Fisheries Sustainability, identifies best practices in humane capture fisheries and issues publicly-available reports to generate knowledge among the fishing industry and policy makers. The project serves as a link between academia and industry to raise awareness of humane capture, retrieval, handling and slaughter methods, as well as provide practical solutions for how industry can improve fishing practices with animal welfare in mind.
The first activity was issuing a report on Key Welfare Recommendations for Capture Fisheries, examining the various welfare issues in capture fisheries and offering recommendations. We then issued a Best Practices report looking at existing best industry practices to show decision-makers some real-world, practical solutions that can be adopted already. As an area of research that is still highly neglected by the international fisheries management community, not to mention the lack of knowledge from even our peers in civil society, our work is to continue researching new practical solutions and scientific recommendations to include in future renditions of our reports, thereby filling the gap in this critical knowledge.
This project will also target seafood certification schemes, in line with our certification advocacy work in aquaculture, to build animal welfare as a criteria for sustainably-certified fisheries. We need to urgently protect the ocean’s main stakeholders: the aquatic animals themselves. Via our global coalitions, this advocacy work will be supported widely, and we hope to use this unified voice to catalyze positive change at the UN, in fisheries management bodies, national governments, and the private sector to begin designing policies and technology with animal welfare in mind.