While not well known in South Korea, the Our Ocean conference was held on Thursday and Friday in Washington where representatives from almost 90 counties presented a vivid account of the current status of the global marine environment.

This was the largest meeting aimed at discussing conservation of the marine environment and the depleting fish stocks. It showed why global action is needed immediately.

For the past several decades, numerous suggestions have been made and projects undertaken in order to conserve the marine environment and ensure sustainable fisheries. Unfortunately, none of them have worked to our satisfaction.

The increasing water temperature from global warming is taking a direct toll on our oceans — last month Korea suffered from its first cholera outbreak in 15 years due to the hot water temperature.

Business entities are keen not to miss out on profit-making opportunities through offshore drilling and seabed excavation. Governments are providing harmful subsidies to their fishing industries as robustly as ever.

As a consequence, the marine environment has been steadily deteriorating for the past several decades, and there is hardly any sign of it turning around. The most recent data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that 29 percent of the global fish species are on the verge of disappearing if the current pace of fishing is maintained. In other words, the next generation will not see one out of three fish species that we see and eat today.

Having seen a dismal failure of all the previous efforts, we may find the newest alternative approach to deal with the urgency of the problem both creative and innovative. This new alternative is to designate a certain marine area as a conservation block and prohibit human activities in the area, whether drilling, excavation or fishing. This is just like a national park in the mountains that we have now, where development and exploitation are prohibited.

The idea behind the proposal is that sea life can find a haven in the protected area, so that various species can maintain their reproductive cycle and thrive. This is an ocean version of wildlife conservation zones in Africa, so to speak. 

This new alternative approach was proposed and adopted by the United States. At Our Ocean conference last week, President Obama designated certain areas of the Atlantic Ocean off the New England coast consisting of some 12,700 square kilometers within the US Exclusive Economic Zone as “marine monument.” This designation prohibits commercial fishing and oil and gas excavation projects in the area.

Granted, some countries have designated coastal conservation areas with various titles, but these are mainly to preserve the scenic beauty of the marine landscapes along the coastlines. They are more geared toward tourism and local economy as opposed to conserving marine species or the underwater environment per se. To the contrary, the newest proposal purports to designate a maritime pocket in the middle of the ocean for conservation purposes only. So, it can be said to be the first attempt of this kind.

The key question now is whether other countries will follow suit. If other countries adopt this initiative and issue similar designations within their respective maritime jurisdiction, we will have multiple conservation pockets in the global oceans.

These sanctuaries will provide a new thriving ground for the endangered marine species. If we can get to that point, this new scheme may turn out to be one of the most effective ways to stop depletion and pencil in the first meaningful victory in the battle in several decades. Perhaps we will not be able to save all of the species for the next generation — it’s already too late. But, with this, at least we can slow down the pace of depletion and reduce the number of species being made extinct.

By Lee Jae-min

Lee Jae-min is a professor of law at Seoul National University. — Ed