World Wildlife Day on March 3, 2019 under the sign of marine animals

World Wildlife Day on March 3 should not simply be about overfishing of the seas by industrial, but also illegal fishing, no, a new environmental program to be considered globally will soon be established.

A very urgent topic on the environmental agenda is also plastic waste in the world's oceans. The problem of littering the oceans with plastic, microplastics and lost fishery elements is one of the biggest environmental problems.

The plastic waste in the sea threatens marine animals and humans in the same measure and this several times. "The ocean landfill is getting bigger every day, every hour, every minute, and the situation of the marine habitat is deteriorating accordingly," says Fabienne McLellan, Head of International Cooperation at the marine conservation organization OceanCare, commenting on the significance of the challenge.

Marine animals mistake plastic for food or become entangled in plastic waste, usually fatally. The numbers are serious: hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales, seals, turtles and even polar bears fall victim to plastic waste; the number of seabirds that die runs into the millions. As toxins are secreted in and around microplastics, fish, shellfish and other animals are contaminated with pollutants. This poisoned food from the sea also threatens human health at the end of the food chain.

Livelihood of all threatened 

But civilization's waste also threatens the livelihoods of coastal populations and residents of small island nations because the trash keeps tourists away and hinders fishing. "Burning, covering up, burying are not the solution. The question is whether we can manage quickly enough to bring about a shift away from single-use products in our consumption patterns and in the real economy. Policymakers must accelerate the framework for a progressive circular economy," McLellan urges. Nairobi will also discuss a new and binding international plastics agreement, which OceanCare had already advocated in advance.

Overfishing leads to poaching in the oceans

OceanCare is also concerned about a trend of the past years, which is named as a direct effect of the overfishing of the seas: poaching. Since the seas have been plundered on a large scale by industrial, but also illegal fishing, the nets of local fishermen are left empty more and more often. In their distress, they become perpetrators themselves and start poaching endangered turtles, dolphins and manatees. The poaching of marine animals is called "Aquatic Wild Meat." The number of illegally killed marine animals has increased rapidly worldwide. Aquatic Wild Meat is particularly prevalent in West Africa. OceanCare gets to the bottom of the main causes and addresses the still little-known problem at UNEA4.

OceanCare will attend the UNEA4 conference in Nairobi with three experts and will report on their experiences and - hopefully! - successes in an online blog. - successes: www.oceancare.org/blog