Sigourney joins appeal to UN to end destructive fishing practice
Sigourney Weaver urged UN members on Tuesday to impose a moratorium on a destructive fishing practice called high-seas bottom trawling, warning that the world's oceans are at risk.
Weaver, appearing with several environmental activists and UN ambassadors, said that new technology has brought remote and fragile ecosystems within the reach of bottom-trawlers, which rake giant nets equipped with wheels, chains and metal doors across the sea floor to scoop up fish.
"The high seas belong to no single country and they most certainly do not belong to the owners of these large industrial fishing corporations," Weaver said. "They belong to all of us and it is time for us to take them back."
Starting Wednesday, the 192-member UN General Assembly will meet to discuss whether to impose a moratorium on bottom-trawling. Environmental groups say the practice is killing little-known coral ecosystems and the species that dwell in them, and must be suspended so the remote areas can be studied.
In 2004, the General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution urging nations to consider temporary bans on bottom trawling. Japan, Iceland, Spain and other nations whose fishing fleets do much of the world's bottom trawling opposed a larger moratorium.
Weaver, an animal-rights and endangered species activist, said people should not assume that the UN is doing something to protect deep-sea ecosystems or that the world's oceans will be safe.
She appealed to ambassadors to "stop this uncontrolled clear-cutting of ancient corals."
"Do the right thing for the seas and for future generations both human and aquatic who will thrive on the bounty of the oceans if given half a chance," Weaver said.
Source:
CNews
Oct 3 2006