Sent 11 December 2020. Part of Little Blue Letter.

"We are tied to the ocean.
And when we go back to the sea,
whether it is to sail or to watch,
we are going back from whence we came."
~ John F. Kennedy
A New Ocean Agenda
The High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy has launched an ambitious call to action, with the leaders of 14 countries committing to sustainably manage 100% of their waters by 2025 and to support global ocean protection targets. The announcement is a "rare show of solidarity", providing a bright spot in the Ocean super Year that never was. 
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Many of the world's maritime powers are conspicuously absent from the Panel, e.g. France, the USA and Russia. This is not by accident: “Negotiation with that category of country isn’t all that easy... We decided to get a group where high politics wouldn’t get in the way and we could be focused on the task” - Vidar Helgesen, the former Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment who has been a driving force behind the initiative.

By forming a "coalition of the willing", the Panel is side-stepping the incrementalism of global consensus-building and leading by example. Given that these countries manage 40% of the world's coastline, their proactive and public commitment to ocean sustainability has the potential to generate real momentum.

While the Panel does not shy away from calling for strong conservation action, they also stress need to sustainably manage all marine spaces and highlight the human dimension of ocean sustainability: increasing protein supply for a growing population, implementing nature-based solutions to limit temperature rise, and ending forced labour and other human rights abuses.
Image
Gif of the week
Long-nosed chimaera 
Ocean update
  • Members of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) failed to agree measures for the management of tropical tunas (nor did they agree to maintain current measures). This leaves tropical tunas unmanaged, in clear contradiction to the IATTC's mandate, which is to... manage tropical tunas. The Global Tuna Alliance, a group of major suppliers and retailers, said it is "astonished" and "profoundly disappointed and frustrated".
  • Two new reports consider the ecology of mesopelagic fishes and the potential governance challenges of commercial exploitation. A recording of a webinar launching the reports is available here. 
Mesopelagic lanternfish
© Paul Caiger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Tiny seascape
Written this week by Glen Wright, a researcher studying marine governance. 
Glen is a drinker of tea, lover of the sea, and an Oxford comma user. 
He is the author of Academia Obscura: The Hidden Silly Side of Higher Education.
 
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