June 8, 10

NEWS / Ban calls for greater awareness of the value of oceans to humanity

8 June 2010 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged governments and citizens across the global to acknowledge the enormous value of the world’s oceans to humanity and ensure that pollution of the bodies of water by human activity is brought under control.

“The diversity of life in the oceans is under ever-increasing strain. Over-exploitation of marine living resources, climate change, and pollution from hazardous materials and activities all pose a grave threat to the marine environment.

“So does the growth of criminal activities, including piracy, which have serious implications for the security of navigation and the safety of seafarers,” Mr. Ban said in a message to mark the World Oceans Day.

He said oceans played a key role in people’s daily lives and were crucial to sustainable development, and an important frontier for research, with scientists exploring them at greater depths than ever before to discover new forms of marine life, which had the potential to advance human well-being.

“But, if we are to fully benefit from what oceans have to offer, we must address the damaging impacts of human activities,” the Secretary-General said on the second annual commemoration of the Day.

He said that much action had been taken within the framework of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the so-called “constitution for the oceans.”

“But if we are to safeguard the capacity of the oceans to service society’s many and varied needs, we need to do much more,” he added.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34950&Cr=oceans&Cr1=