25/05/2018: Stop taking the oceans for granted

The University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences hosted the ninth Monaco Blue Initiative.

Here, International Aquafeed reports a slightly abridged opening presentation by His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, Prince of Monaco. The one-day conference drew 100-plus invited delegates from 15 countries and was held in the University’s Old College ‘Playfair Library’ in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland.

“The Monaco Blue Initiative aims to help change our approach to the oceans by prioritizing specific, collective operational solutions. In this respect the Initiative was created as a result of an observation, a requirement and an aim.
 

“There is great complexity of the subjects related to the conservation of our oceans, which require different levels of action, technical expertise and complementary aims.

“We need to act in line with multiple rational taking into account sometimes contradictory requirements, reconciling the needs of man with those of nature as well as current crises and our duties to the future.

“But we need to act swiftly, because the requirement is to progress rapidly in the face of the dangers we face each year becoming increasingly specific and increasingly alarming.

“Whilst there is still time we must do everything we can to avoid irreversible tragedy; tragedies that we can already see looming on the horizon with the deterioration of our precious, fragile eco systems, the spread of plastic pollution, the daily disappearance of different plants and animal species.

“In order to reverse the cycle of this decline, we must adopt a new approach that is respectful.

“We must stop taking the ocean for granted and believing that it is permanent that we can take from it and that we can pour into it anything and everything without consequences.”

Acting together
“Our aim is to bring together the skills and means that are all too often dispersed, to encourage dialogue between experts and to mobile concerted action.

“We must act together otherwise we will not be able to progress in the right direction. Acting alone we will run out of ideas; acting alone we will run out of means; acting alone we will run out of determination and acting alone we would find we would be less efficient.

“We must never forget the multiple demands and their complexity which must be addressed in order to make a real difference. We must never forget the reality of the situation. As David Hume one of Scotland’s finest son once wrote, 'Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.'

“Indeed, being a man is precisely looking at different aspects of a problem and trying to reconcile them. That is why we need to work altogether.

“Today I would like to extend a welcome to Peter Thompson, the United Nation Special Envoy of the Oceans. Through his work he embodies a collective commitment by the nations of the world to the oceans and their importance to humanity.

“His appointment shows a new awareness by the international community which like him is equipped with remarkable skills and new means.

Read the full article, HERE.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news