Emperor’s Sea – An Oasis of Life Canada Can Protect

This article is a slightly adapted version for Canadian conditions from another version published by Greenpeace International.

Deep in the northern Pacific lies a remote chain of more than 800 seamounts. This oasis of life Emperor’s DissolutionIt is home to a variety of cold-water corals and sponges, as well as small creatures such as crustaceans and starfish.

Like many other seamounts, they play a vital role in the migration and life cycle of large marine animals such as blue whales, sperm whales, and humpback whales. Even birds, including the world’s oldest wild bird, the Laysan albatross (known as Wisdom), forage in this biodiversity hotspot.

There are many reasons why life exists around the ocean. Emperor’s Dissolution They thrive. Rising more than 100 meters above the surrounding seafloor, the seamounts are filled with a constant supply of food from the ocean currents. This food attracts small fish, which in turn attract larger predators such as tuna and sharks. A mix of hard and soft surfaces, overhangs, and depressions provide a variety of habitats for marine life to thrive.
The United States has protected the southernmost region. Emperor’s Dissolution Located in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, a national marine area. Papahānaumokuākea and the wider ocean area beyond have deep cosmological and traditional significance to Native Hawaiian culture. It is the ancestral environment and the embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world.

Unfortunately the rest Emperor’s Dissolution The high seas remain vulnerable to destructive human fishing activities. Bottom fishing accounts for only 2.1% of all apparent fishing activity in the region, but has already devastated many fragile and slow-growing deep-sea ecosystems.

A regional fisheries management organization (RFMO) is an international organization comprised of countries with a shared interest in fisheries management in a particular region. RFMOs are responsible for fisheries management in surrounding areas. Emperor’s Dissolution This is the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC). Since its establishment in 2015, the NPFC has taken steps to protect North Pacific fisheries. Emperor’s Dissolution It was found to be inadequate. At the most recent NPFC meeting in April 2024, the United States and Canada called for the seamounts to be closed to bottom trawling until the vast gaps in scientific understanding of these fragile ecosystems and their inhabitants were better studied and understood. Unfortunately, NPFC members did not adopt the United States and Canada’s proposal, once again failing to stop bottom fishing to protect precious marine life.

The science is clear. Emperor’s Dissolution They need urgent protection, but every fishing season they suffer because of the RFMO’s failure. Their failure to protect them is yet another example of the need for a historic global ocean treaty, which would give governments the tools to create marine protected areas around the most precious ecosystems on the high seas.

But the treaty will only come into effect after at least 60 governments have enshrined it in their national laws. If governments are serious about protecting at least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, they must ratify the treaty urgently. That includes Canada.

As governments work domestically to build formal support for the treaty, they must begin developing proposals to fully protect vulnerable marine ecosystems. Emperor’s DissolutionCanada has shown leadership alongside the United States, but now it must translate its demands into action at sea.

Join us in calling on Canada to protect its oceans. Sign our petition calling on the federal government to act quickly to ratify the World Oceans Treaty and establish a network of marine protected areas.