Sri Lanka should sign an Ocean Treaty and fall in line with some of the other countries, said Campaign Manager at Greenpeace South Asia, Avinash Chanchal Kumar.
He said even countries like Nepal and Bangladesh have signed this UN based treaty along with most of the developed countries.
“The Indian Ocean is home to a staggering diversity of aquatic life and ecosystems. Considering this ocean is also warming at the fastest rate it is crucial to understand the nature of biodiversity that lives here. Greenpeace South Asia is calling on all states in the region to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty to safeguard oceans biodiversity, support climate mitigation and the future of the next generations. One of our efforts as Greenpeace South Asia is to ensure we work with communities and experts from the region to better understand the climate realities here.”
Greenpeace South Asia and Sri Lankan marine conservation organization‘Oceanswell’ have just returned to Colombo following the successful completion of cetacean visual and acoustic surveys in the high seas of the Indian Ocean aboard the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior that us enabled us to go beyond national waters into the high seas and complete this expedition successfully’.
“We are enthusiastic that the data that has been collected in this survey will help us understand the marine biodiversity here a lot better.”
The scientific survey was conducted under the leadership of Dr. Asha de Vos, renowned cetacean researcher and founder of Oceanswell.The survey track covered a total of 2,431 km over 10 days and was run in the northern part of the Ninety East Ridge located in international waters East of Sri Lanka and South of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
“This is the first time a dedicated cetacean visual and acoustic survey has been conducted in this part of the Indian Ocean and the data we have gathered over these two weeks will contribute greatly to help us start to paint a picture of the more remote parts of our Ocean home,” De Vos said. (SS)
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