Nairobi Convention Marine and Coastal News Round-up (28 August 2020)

Just two months before the Mauritius oil spill, the International Coral Reef Initiative, a long-standing partner of the United Nations Environment Programme, adopted a recommendation to safeguard the future of coral reefs. It recognizes the vulnerability of coral reefs to climate change, ocean acidification, land-based pollution such as nutrients and sediments from agriculture, sea-based pollution, overfishing, among other activities.

New research conducted in Tanzania is providing a chilling example of shifting baselines: the idea that how much an ecosystem appears to have changed depends on when one starts paying attention. The research, led by Gill Braulik, a marine ecologist at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, in collaboration with Tanzanian scientists, suggests that sawfish have nearly completely disappeared from Tanzanian waters in just a few decades. Sawfish are among the most endangered marine fishes in the world.

A group of fisherwomen in Lamu, Kenya have discovered two temporary octopus closures, giving the sector a major boost. The women, under the Pate Marine Community Conservancy (PMCC), discovered the octopus closures on Pate Island, Kenya. They cover about 284 acres of marine area. In recent days, Lamu women have become more proactively involved in patrol and enforcement of key fishery resources in nearshore ecosystems.

Through their exclusive economic zones, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) control about 30% of all oceans and seas. The Blue Economy Hub is hosting a webinar on opportunities in the Blue Economy for SIDs, with a focus on Mauritius and Seychelles.

The latest issue of the newsletter of the marine litter monitoring programme, Litter Catch Up is out! This issue reports the on-going marine litter monitoring activities in Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Join the Reef Resilience Network for the first webinar of a series of online activities and events about ocean sewage pollution, and learn how sewage impacts the well-being of the environment, coral reefs, and coastal communities; and why we need to act now to mitigate it.

UNEP and the Ocean Agency, in collaboration with creativity partner Adobe, have launched Ocean League, a new campaign that showcases the power of creativity in driving positive change for ocean protection and climate action. This groundswell of support will be showcased to policy-makers through visual displays at key events, with the specific goal of prioritizing coral reefs and oceans in the Post-2020 framework at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2021 (CoP15).

The United Nations Summit on Biodiversity will be convened on 30 September 2020 at the level of Heads of State and Government under the theme of “Urgent action on biodiversity for sustainable development.” The Summit is an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and commitment to improve our relationship with nature, addressing the causes of change and ensuring that biodiversity and the contributions it provides to all people are at the heart of sustainable development and the fight against climate change.

This paper presents the current state of knowledge on organized crime in the fisheries sector in the context of the pursuit of a sustainable ocean economy. With reference to worldwide best practices, the paper presents practical recommendations to address organized crime in fisheries emphasizing the need for a shared understanding of the problem and the implementation of intelligence-led, skills-based cooperative law enforcement action at a global level, facilitated by enabling legislative frameworks and increased transparency.

New research is the first in the world to quantify the extent to which biologically important artificial light is prevalent on the seafloor and could, in turn, be having a detrimental effect on marine species. The study showed that under both cloudy and clear skies, quantities of light used in everyday street lighting permeated all areas of the water column.

The Locally Empowered Area Protection Project (LEAP) Seychelles is currently seeking experienced consultants to carry out the following assignment: Participatory Assessment o Marine Biodiversity for Port Launay, and Baie Ternay Marine National Parks. Closing date of application: 4 p.m. on Friday 4th September, 2020.