Wild Tobago

Dr Anjani Ganase reports on the status of an international agreement to protect Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ). Here’s what you need to know.     WHAT DOES BIODIVERSITY BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION MEAN? Most countries are responsible for a stretch of ocean territory that extends up to a maximum of 200 nautical miles from their coasts. Trinidad and Tobago is responsible for an economic exclusion zone (EEZ) that mostly extends to the north and the east of our coasts, that is 15 times our combined land masses. The USA, as another example. has the largest EEZ in the world and is larger than the fifty states combined. The marine areas that fall under the jurisdiction of countries make up about 42 % of the ocean. Within the lines of jurisdiction, all activities fall under the sovereign rights of the country. While many countries have signed treaties for conservation, much of what goes on is governed by local legislation. This designation was...

The documentary Seaspiracy does more to spur controversy over the validity of statements and encourages finger pointing instead of fostering discussion for genuine change in the ways that marine resources are used and managed. Anjani Ganase discusses what might have been done to achieve better conversations   I don’t watch documentaries as they feel like work and are often too depressing. However, I watched Seaspiracy because there seemed to be a discrepancy between the reviews from the scientific community and those viewers not working in ocean research and conservation. Regular reviewers were left appalled by the greed and unregulated practices in the fishing industry, while the marine scientists were angered. The documentary was heavily criticized by the scientific community for the false statistics and the misinformation, including the retracted statement that there will be no fish by the year 2048. I’m not going to delve into this here, as it is covered in detail by scien...