● The European Union took 6 years to accept United
Nations Resolutions 44/225 of 1989 and 1991, which prohibited the use of
large-scale driftnets on the high seas as of 1992, took 10 years to make it
legally binding and still today, 13 years later, this type of illegal fishing
continues to be a current feature of the fishing methods used by European
fleets?
Within their 1.40 billion cubic kilometres of water and 370 million square
kilometres of expanse, we can find coral forests, deserts, mountains, volcanoes,
minerals, bacteria, algae, complex plants, mammals, fish, reptiles, birds,
crustaceans, molluscs and a very long list of life forms, many of which are
still unknown to us.
Humankind has been using the oceans for aeons, but not until the last few
centuries have our activities become a real threat. Pollution, over-fishing and
over-hunting, mining, the destruction of the oceans richest areas, the massive
occupation of the coasts and the alteration of their chemical composition and
temperature are leaving a mark that is difficult to erase.