Reflections from the director of the CIM-UVigo Marine Research Center and the Campus do Mar
On June 8th we will celebrate World Oceans Day. We are increasingly aware of the importance and economic potential of the oceans and the entire maritime industry, today grouped under the impetus of the so-called blue economy. This year’s World Oceans Day encourages the global 30 x 30 movement that calls on world leaders to protect at least 30% of our oceans through a network of highly protected areas in search of a protection model that ensures the delicate balance of ocean ecosystems. Currently, and according to data from the Global Conservation Monitoring Centre (GCMC) of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), only 1.6% of the oceans were legally protected in 2010.
The oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. The sense that their immense volume constitutes a limitless, untamable expanse of water is deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness. Even oceanographers and marine scientists see the ocean as an infinitely vigorous and brutal volume, governed only by the fundamental laws of the universe, technologically unattainable, the final frontier of our planet. Unapproachable on a human scale.
Boosting the blue economy
But is this perception well-founded? According to the European Commission, the EU’s blue economy represents 5.4 million jobs and a gross added value of just under 500 billion euros per year. The main sectors of activity are both traditional industries such as maritime freight transport (90% of intercontinental trade), fisheries (1% of total GDP in the EU) and gas and oil exploitation (over 50% is extracted offshore); as well as new economic areas with rapid growth, such as aquaculture (20% of fish production in the EU with a growth rate of 7% per year, compared to the stagnation of fisheries), maritime and coastal tourism (the most important maritime sectoral activity in the EU contributing 182 billion euros of gross added value and representing a third of the entire blue economy), or the still incipient fields of biotechnology, ocean energy and marine mining.
The importance of all this economic activity led to the adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. This regulation, initially signed by 160 sovereign nations, regulates the use and establishment of mechanisms for acquiring property and providing legal security that allow the economic development of resources on the high seas. This singular event will initiate the most important and peaceful plan for colonization and territorial expansion in the history of humanity. Under its auspices, Spain presented in 2009 three proposals for the extension of the continental shelf beyond 200 miles and up to a maximum of 350 in the Cantabrian Sea, Galicia and the Canary Islands. This would mean an increase of almost 85% of the surface area of our territory to the submerged sands adjacent to the coast. Spain would have rights over the natural resources of the seabed of the extended area. How can we reconcile the blue economy, a depository of great hopes and prosperity in the sea’s capacity for economic and social development, with the need to protect the most sensitive ocean ecosystems, which are at the same time the source of a significant part of its wealth?
“Galicia possesses the scientific potential necessary to promote marine sciences and technologies”
More research and greater coordination between administrations. Galicia has the scientific potential necessary to promote and boost research, teaching and the transfer of excellent knowledge in marine sciences and technologies. And it is also capable of providing the industry with the tools that improve its competitiveness on a global scale while researching, identifying and inventorying the elements that require specific conservation measures and can be declared as of community interest within the remarkable geomorphological, oceanographic and biogeographical diversity of our coast.
In this regard, the European Green Deal presented on 20 May by the European Commission highlights two main actions: the EU Biodiversity Strategy, under the slogan ‘bringing nature back into our lives’, and a programme strongly aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the ‘Farm to Fork’ (F2F) strategy aimed at creating the healthiest and most sustainable food system in the EU. These actions materialise an incipient desire for European reconstruction before Brexit and the coronavirus crisis and open up an opportunity to address some of the problems affecting the biosphere and climate crises. There will be more and more important ones.
It is time to materialize within the ETEA the space that accommodates all this capacity and favors synergies between universities, technological institutes and the regional centers of the CSIC and the IEO, today mostly grouped in the Campus do Mar. What are we waiting for to develop a great international reference center in this territory economically and socially linked to the sea?
Source: DUVI
