New York, Feb. 22 (BNA): Actress and activist Jane Fonda is campaigning for a treaty to save marine creatures hunted for food including sharks, swordfish, octopus and tuna, saying they feel joy and feel sadness when they lose their offspring. and “They are our brothers in the ocean.”
A day after talks resumed at United Nations Headquarters to craft a long-delayed and elusive treaty to protect the world’s marine biodiversity, the 85-year-old Academy Award winner told a news conference Tuesday that these sea creatures “play with us and feel the emotions and how dare we.” Not being so humble that we would risk killing them for money and food.”
Fonda said she has been working with Greenpeace for nearly four years, and came to New York to deliver 5.5 million signatures from people in 157 countries calling for a strong global oceans treaty to Rina Lee, the UN chief negotiator.
The main goal of the treaty is to convert 30% of the world’s oceans into marine reserves by 2030 where fishing is prohibited, the Associated Press reports.
Fonda grew up in Santa Monica, California, and said she loved the ocean and was at the beach every day so much that it was warm enough. She said she has been snorkeling in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, the Caribbean, and other places in the world.
“I’ve swam with some of the most amazing creatures, and I know they may be smarter than me,” Fonda said. “And I love them, and I think we should all understand that we are talking about saving the last of the great wild animals being hunted for food.”
Fonda said the world could not survive without healthy oceans, which scientists say provide 50% of the oxygen we breathe. But the oceans are vulnerable to overfishing and pollution, including the bits of plastic that fish eat.
She said ocean heating as a result of climate change is also killing kelp beds that many marine organisms depend on to live, and fertilizer leaching from industrial farms is “causing the ocean’s dead zones to widen.”
“The ocean is our ally,” said Fonda. “Let’s love and respect her.”
Hervé Bierville, France’s minister of state for sea affairs who sat alongside Fonda, said he believes “we have the political momentum” during the negotiations that end March 3 to overcome remaining challenges and reach agreement on a treaty that protects 30% of the ocean. by 2030.
Fonda warned that time is running out.
“Even dogs don’t poop in their own kennel, because they know the kennel provides them with security and a home,” she said. “We poop in our kennel.”
Fonda said that humans destroy things they don’t understand.
“The reason the Treaty is so important is because it will force us to act right, to save this great ally that we have called the only ocean on this blue planet that can save us,” she said. “There is a lot at stake.”