A Fin and a prayer

ICELAND SUSPENDS FIN WHALE HUNTING AND UN ADOPTS IMPORTANT SEA TREATY

In a week when the loss of the titanic submersible has been in the foremost of our minds, there have been two significant pieces of positive ocean news. As of 20th June 2023, Iceland has suspended whaling for 3 months, until the end of August 2023, in the name of animal welfare - with high hopes of it becoming a permanent ban, and the United Nations (UN) on 19th June 2023, have adopted the world's first sea biodiversity treaty to protect marine life in international waters.

Fin whales (the second-longest species on earth after the blue whale) are classified globally by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction. However, despite a recent decline in demand for whale meat, with a survey suggesting that Iceland's general population now disapproves of the practice, their current quotas allow for the killing of 209 fin whales and also 217 minke whales every year.

However, according to a report by Iceland's Food and Veterinary Authority, the time it takes to kill a whale violates the country's law - so the hunts have had to be suspended. Some apparently lasted five hours and whales took up to 2 hours to die, whilst suffering immensely. The charity Humane Society International (HSI) Europe hailed the decision to cancel this year's hunts as "a major milestone in compassionate whale conservation" and their executive director Ruud Tombrock said, "There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea, and so we urge the minister to make this a permanent ban. Whales already face so many serious threats in the oceans from pollution, climate change, entanglement in fish nets and ship strikes, that ending cruel commercial whaling is the only ethical conclusion."

Robert Read, head of Sea Shepherd UK, describing whales as our architects for the ocean, boosting biodiversity and helping fight climate change through their effects on the carbon cycling process, said the decision was also "a huge blow" to other whaling nations. "If whaling can't be done humanely here ... it can't be done humanely anywhere."

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Meanwhile, after nearly 20 years of work and following an agreement reached in March 2023 by more than 100 countries, the United Nations have finally adopted the world's first treaty to protect the high seas and preserve marine biodiversity in international waters.

The new historic treaty, hailed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as giving the ocean a "fighting chance" is under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which came into force in 1994. It will create a new body to manage ocean conservation and establish marine protected areas in the high seas whilst also establishing ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities.

Opened for signatures on 20th September 2023, during the annual meeting of world leaders at the General Assembly, the treaty will take effect once it's ratified by 60 countries and will play a key part in efforts to put 30% of the world's land and sea under environmental protection by 2030.