27 September 2011
EVIAN - "In order to save the Mediterranean Sea we would need to stop fishing for 20 years. No one should fish for anything. What they are doing now is destroying it."
This was the alarm raised by Paul Watson, the co-founder of Greenpeace and today the leader of Sea Shepherd, speaking during the Global Conference in Evian on sustainable development and environmental protection. "There are 23 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, therefore it is a very convoluted puzzle," he explained, "because no one is ready to assume their commitments to protect the ecosystem and its species. But the sea is dying. It would be necessary to create a restricted area, like the natives of Tahiti. There, everyone abides by it because the shamans are there to see to it."
The situation is very different than what is happening in the Mediterranean Sea, where everyone seems to look the other way, denounced Watson. Like with the case of the bluefin tuna: "The northern Mediterranean countries fish it, saying 'if we don't then the Tunisians will'. The Tunisians fish it, saying 'if we don't then the Libyans will', and so on. But the truth is that there is an interest in reducing the species and bringing it to the brink of extinction for money." It is supply and demand, he explained: "Today a fish is sold for a minimum of 70,000 dollars, some near 300,000. The fewer fish there are, the more the price rises, therefore if the population is reduced to a minimum, the people selling bluefin tuna are sitting on a gold mine. This is called the economy of extinction."
Governments are incapable of resolving this problem by themselves, according to the Sea Shepherd 'pirates', due to a lack of real political determination. "It is just like the oceans, where we have all of the agreements necessary for their protection, but no incentive to apply them. The only solution is for people to get involved and act directly in order to protect the sea. Some call them pirates, but they shouldn't worry, because this is the only path for change."
Source: ANSAmed.
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