‘Paris of the oceans’ pact crucial to save seas, says WWF head

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - To save the world’s oceans from rampant over-fishing, pollution and degradation, countries should hammer out a deal like the Paris Agreement on climate change that sets stringent targets for protection, said the head of global conservation group WWF.

Such an accord would help the world’s poorest who depend on the seas for jobs and food, said WWF International President Pavan Sukhdev.

People should pay attention to the origins of their seafood and push companies to play their part in ocean conservation, said Sukhdev, who warned that the amount of plastic consumed by fish could spark a health crisis.

“There hasn’t been a Paris of the oceans yet - we need that with extreme urgency,” Sukhdev told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

Nearly 200 nations signed up to the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to keep the rise in average global temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times, and ideally to 1.5 degrees.

Sukhdev was speaking on the sidelines of the World Ocean Summit at the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen on Friday, where environmentalists, politicians and business leaders met to discuss how to improve the state of the world’s oceans.

Alongside dwindling fish numbers, oceans are also beset by rising temperatures, acidification and pollution, particularly from the trillions of pieces of plastic in the sea, which are starting to make their way into the food chain.