PTorrential and deadly storms, exponential acceleration of the rate of warming of the world’s waters and marine heat waves, massive overexploitation of fish by industrial fisheries, collapse of more than 90% of the biomass of large marine animals, acidification, deoxygenation, collapse of marine currents… All the scientific lights are red for the ocean and biodiversity. One figure highlights the process of ocean desertification: while the total mass of human beings on Earth represents about 0.4 gigatons, we are responsible for the disappearance of about 2.7 gigatons of life in the oceans. Dizzying.
In August, two scientific studies confirmed the scale of the ongoing disaster. The first warning is that assessments of fish stocks have been too optimistic: they are faring much worse than imagined. The second concerns marine protected areas (MPAs): only 0.2% of European waters are actually protected, while climatologists insist on the need for healthy ecosystems to absorb the impact of global warming and excess CO2 in the water.2 produced by humanity.
It is in this context of oceanic crisis that the Council of State is due to make its decision this Friday, September 20, during a crucial hearing on the future of the ocean. The question posed by the Bloom association to the supreme administrative jurisdiction is simple: will France finally be obliged to protect marine protected areas? Currently, the government decree defining the highest level of protection ends up protecting a handful of industrial trawlers that are chronically bankrupt and suffering from a trickle of public aid, instead of protecting marine ecosystems, oceanic carbon sinks and the future of citizens.
Ban industrial fishing in 30% of the ocean
The ocean is both a lung and a planetary thermostat: it captures between 25 and 30% of CO2 and has already absorbed more than 90% of our excess heat, but is under threat from destructive human activities. Industrial fishing inflicts immense damage on the ocean, affecting an area four times larger than that used by agriculture worldwide each year, yet accounting for a tiny percentage of our protein intake and GDP.
Bottom trawling, demersal purse seines, fish aggregating devices: these technical terms mask the annihilation of the ocean and animals in unimaginable quantities. But it is not inevitable: we have a powerful weapon to protect the ocean and stop this race to the abyss: marine protected areas.
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