{"id":55766,"date":"2016-06-09T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selasite.azurewebsites.net\/reflect-act-to-safeguard-caribbean-sea-caricom-on-world-oceans-day\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T15:55:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T20:55:37","slug":"reflect-act-to-safeguard-caribbean-sea-caricom-on-world-oceans-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/reflect-act-to-safeguard-caribbean-sea-caricom-on-world-oceans-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflect, act to safeguard Caribbean Sea \u2013 CARICOM on World Oceans Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tSEbPSrKkp4\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Credits: https:\/\/youtu.be\/tSEbPSrKkp4<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as steward of the the Caribbean Sea \u2013 the second largest sea in the world \u2013 is joining in the observance of World Oceans Day today.<\/p>\n<p>And this year\u2019s celebration should be used to reflect and act \u201cas we seek to safeguard this natural resource so critical to this Region\u2019s economy, cultural expression and recreation,\u201d according to Dr. Douglas Slater,\u00a0Assistant Secretary General, Human and Social Development, CARICOM Secretariat.<\/p>\n<p>Please read Dr. Slater\u2019s Message below:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Message by Dr. Douglas Slater, Assistant Secretary-General, Human \u00a0and Social Development, CARICOM Secretariat, on the occasion of World Oceans Day<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.caricom.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Caribbean Community<\/a>\u00a0(CARICOM) joins the international observance of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldoceansday.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Oceans Day<\/a>\u00a0under the theme \u2018Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet\u2019. We add our voices as stewards of the Caribbean Sea, the second largest sea in the world with an area of over 2.5 million square kilometres.<\/p>\n<p>The Caribbean Sea is of critical importance to the wider Caribbean Region especially as it relates to: \u2013<\/p>\n<p>Its role in Food Security and Nutrition;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Acting as the resource base supporting a multi-million dollar tourism industry;<\/li>\n<li>Serving as one of the world\u2019s great shipping routes; and<\/li>\n<li>Supporting several major ecosystems including mangroves, sea-grass beds and coral reefs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"305\" height=\"300\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/health-oceans.webp\" alt=\"Health -oceans\" data-udi=\"umb:\/\/media\/8fc75443ce52492c8b147ecb9c54aad3\"><\/p>\n<p>While we are cognisant of the importance of the waters that border our shores, it is apparent that the World\u2019s oceans are being turned into \u201cdumping grounds\u201d currently estimated to contain approximately 150 million tons of garbage. Scientists have estimated that 32 % of all plastic packaging ends up into the natural ecosystems including the ocean. Further, eight million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean each year.\u00a0 In practical terms this means that there is one ton of plastic for every five tons of fish.\u00a0 If we continue polluting at this rate by 2050 the amount of plastic in the ocean will surpass the amount of fish<\/p>\n<p>This situation is problematic not only for the human population as well but also the species inhabiting the oceans.\u00a0 Ingestion of plastic particles harm fish which in turn threatens the livelihoods of fishermen.\u00a0 Tiny plastic particles also get into fish, shellfish and marine mammals which can then be ingested by humans.\u00a0 Endangered species of sea turtle often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and end up ingesting them and subsequently suffocating.\u00a0 The issue of plastic bags in particular and their impact on the environment has become so problematic that two CARCIOM Member States, Antigua and Barbuda and Haiti have banned their importation.<\/p>\n<p>It is critical therefore that this year\u2019s celebration be used as a call for reflection and action by the Region as we seek to safeguard this natural resource so critical to this Region\u2019s economy, cultural expression and recreation. In that regard, the Government of Grenada must be commended for recently hosting the \u201cGrenada Blue Week: The International Conference to Promote Blue Growth and Investment which was\u00a0 held in St. George\u2019s, Grenada, from May 14-22, 2016 and\u00a0 which shed light on the opportunities which can be derived from \u201cHealthy Oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We acknowledge that there have been a number of initiatives by our regional institutions including the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) to address the sustainable use of our ocean resources via research, pilot projects and targeted interventions in Member States.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, there has also been significant work by intergovernmental organisation such as the United Nations (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),\u00a0<em>United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (<\/em>UNESCO), United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)) as well as the Association of Caribbean States (ACS).<\/p>\n<p>We would therefore seek to enhance our collaboration and cooperation for continue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflect, act to safeguard Caribbean Sea \u2013 CARICOM on World Oceans Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boletines-regionales"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmtsolutions.net\/sela\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}