The "SOS Ocean!" international conference, hosted by the French government and the Oceano Azul Foundation, was held from March 30th to 31st at the Maritime Museum in Paris. The Eiffel Tower lit up its blue lights on the evening of the 30th to welcome this conference.
The purpose of this event is to prepare for the United Nations Ocean Conference to be held in Nice from June 9th to 13th, and non-governmental organizations will use this opportunity to raise awareness of global ocean threats. The meeting will reiterate the destructive nature of ocean trawl fishing.
The annual trawl fishing area exceeds 670000 square kilometers, equivalent to the total water area of France, Switzerland, and Belgium. However, there are many alternative methods for this fishing technique. Didier Gascuel, a professor of marine ecology at the Rennes Agricultural Research Institute, pointed out that "out of the top 20 most common fish species caught using bottom trawling, 17 have already been extensively caught through alternative fishing methods. By using fishing gear that is less harmful to the environment, the same amount of the same species can be caught without increasing fishing pressure in coastal areas.
French Minister of Ecological Transition Agn è s Pannier Runacher stated that a "case by case" protection policy will be adopted and is unwilling to adopt a one size fits all protection measure. Therefore, non-governmental organizations such as Bloom are calling on President Macron to immediately ban trawl fishing in all marine protected areas.
