FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1 October 2018
The deep sea is a hidden and neglected area of ocean conservation. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, work to protect the area is poorly funded despite being subject to multiple pressures from climate change, pollution, destructive fishing and the new threat of deep seabed mining.
A new grant from Arcadia[1] – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin – is, however, helping to change that. The grant will enable the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) to continue working to bring much needed attention and protection to the deep over the coming five years.
Matthew Gianni of the DSCC said: “This grant comes at an important time as the world moves closer to full scale deep seabed mining and fishing for deep-sea species increases. It is a race against time to protect these vital yet vulnerable habitats and ecosystems, so important to humanity and the functioning of the whole ocean.”
The DSCC is made up of over 80 member organisations. The grant will be used toward advocacy, communications, coordination and technical support for the DSCC’s programs of work on both Fisheries and Seabed Mining.
In 2016 the UN’s first World Ocean Assessment[2] stated that “the truly vast deep-sea realm constitutes the largest source of species and ecosystem diversity on Earth…and supports the diverse ecosystem processes and functions necessary for the Earth’s natural systems to function”; despite this the area is much neglected and very little campaigning is funded or conducted around its protection.
Chair of the DSCC, Lance Morgan of the Marine Conservation Institute, said: “We are very grateful to Arcadia for having the vision to protect the deep ocean cradle of life and to recognise that it is so important for our collective survival”.
One of Arcadia’s aims is to promote open access to information. All materials resulting from the grant – including text, images, audio and video, technical standards –which will be publicly available, free of charge via the internet.
ENDS
Arcadia is a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that promote open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition that any materials produced are made available for free online. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $500 million to projects around the world.
For further information please contact Sian Owen at info@savethehighseas.org or on +31-648 502 659
[2]The First Global Integrated Marine Assessment/World Ocean Assessment I, Chapters 36F & 51. UNGA 2016.
