Save Our Seas

The question of sustainable development has gone beyond intellectual considerations. For anyone in any way concerned by the well-being – not to say survival - of future generations, sustainability is a matter of the highest priority. The scale and implications of issues such as climate change are too great for any industry, including the luxury industry, or nation to ignore, even if a sense of urgency is still lacking in some quarters.

Organised each year for watch professionals, this day of discussion and exchange set out to increase attendees’ understanding of the issues surrounding sustainable development and specifically how the ocean is suffering as a result of human activity. The Foundation’s online platform published accounts of the various panels and debates as a springboard to explore topics relating to the ocean: a vital biotope that is slowly dying and whose resources are rapidly depleting. The $64,000 question being: without the ocean, what would Earth’s climate be like? The answer can be found on certain planets in the solar system such as Mars, which has striking similarities to Earth but with no water system and where temperature swings leave no possibility for life.

What we believed was an infinite resource is, through our own neglect, reaching its limits. An essential contributor to life on Earth, covering 70% of its surface, the ocean plays an invaluable role. It supports millions of living species that provide half the planet’s population with food. Ocean ecosystems are essential to the carbon cycle by producing 60% of the oxygen in the atmosphere and absorbing the majority of human-induced carbon dioxide. Considering the number of services rendered, it makes sense that we should do everything we can to preserve the ocean’s integrity. Except we aren’t. Through overfishing, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, humans are transforming the ocean bed into a sickbed, and this spells environmental disaster. The pill is all the more bitter knowing that the first talks about the ocean’s plight go back to the 1960s.

Once the “poor relation” of sustainable development, the ocean is capturing a larger share of the public debate. Alice Eymard, from Focal Point Oceans, WWF (Switzerland), has this to say: “The ocean has, for too long, been largely absent from global discussions on climate change. Now this is changing. The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate as well as other research clearly demonstrate the urgent need to tackle the climate and ocean crises together.”

But can we put a price on nature? And if so, what would it be? Listed shares have a market value; why not the ecosystems whose survival dictates our own? This idea of monetising a common resource based on the services it provides is a fundamental question in a context of global warming and investment in climate action. The ocean is in the frontline, because of its role in maintaining ecological balance but also because, outside of exclusive economic zones, the ocean belongs to no-one. Or rather, it belongs to everyone. Ocean conservation is critical yet remains chronically underfunded. One of the main roles of the fledgling blue economy is to help fill this gap and science must be part of the equation. If we are to save ourselves we must first save our seas.