Deep-Sea Fisheries Webinar TODAY! Tues 20th Oct 2015

INDEEP-DOSI and MESP present:

Deep-Sea Fisheries

Part of the Deep-Sea Webinar Series
Featuring Glen Wright (IDDRI) and Claire Nouvian (BLOOM)
Hosted by Linwood Pendleton

Tuesday, October 20, 2015
10am U.S. eastern time, 3pm London, 4pm Paris

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
To join the event on October 20, you will need a password. Simply enter lowercase mesp.

Glen Wright, Research Fellow in International Marine Policy at Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)

Fishing is a significant threat to marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Bottom fishing in particular can impact deep-sea ecosystems, and the UN General Assembly has called on regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) to take action to regulate bottom fisheries, including closing areas to bottom fishing activities where there is likely to be significant adverse impacts to vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). This presentation provides an overview of deep-sea ecosystems and fisheries in ABNJ, and reviews the closures implemented by RFMOs. It concludes that biodiversity conservation efforts within RFMOs continue to advance slowly, with RFMOs often failing to act in a precautionary manner based on the available scientific evidence.

Glen Wright is a Research Fellow in International Marine Policy at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris. Glen’s research interests include fisheries policy, particularly regulation of deep-sea fisheries, the international negotiations concerning areas beyond national jurisdiction, regional oceans governance, and ocean energy. He holds a degree in law from the Universities of Nottingham (UK) and Texas (US), and a masters degree in law from the University of New South Wales (Australia). Glen is currently finishing his PhD with the Australian National University.

Claire Nouvian, Director & Founder of BLOOM Association

Deep-sea fishing has taken place in the European and North Atlantic deep-seas for over four decades, but the first attempt to regulate these highly destructive fisheries was not until 2003. The 2003 legislation serves as the current legal framework which has been unable to prevent ongoing damage to vulnerable deepwater fish stocks, species and habitats. In July 2012, under former EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, the European Commission proposed an ambitious overhaul of the deep-sea fisheries legislation. The Commission sought to align EU law with the long negotiated UN resolutions that the UN General Assembly adopted from 2004 to 2011.

Under extreme pressure from European industrial fishing lobbies and thanks to the will of the current Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU, legislation reform is finally progressing after over three years of delay in Council and a harsh debate at the European Parliament. Unfortunately, certain member states, especially France, strongly oppose the phase-out of deep-sea bottom trawling as proposed by the European Commission, and this has delayed and jeopardized the legislative process.

Claire Nouvian is an environmentalist committed to putting an end to deep-sea bottom trawling and advocates before governments and institutions to that effect. In 2004, she founded the nonprofit organization BLOOM. In 2013, Claire developed a petition against deep-sea bottom trawling which has collected nearly 900,000 signatures, making it France’s n°1 environmental petition in history, and triggering the largest deep-sea fishing fleet in France to stop deep-sea bottom trawling below 800 meters of depth.

Claire used to work in television production and journalism, specializing in wildlife and scientific documentaries. She put together the book The Deep (translated into 11 languages), and the eponymous exhibition, which is still traveling the world and has already attracted over 2.3 million visitors. Claire lectures on environmental political science, public subsidies in fisheries, and communication strategy. The French GEO magazine named her “the planet’s guardian angel.” Claire has lived in several countries and speaks six languages.

All webinars are archived at linwoodpendleton.com/pastwebinars

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