Actress and activist Jane Fonda is campaigning for a treaty to save sea creatures that are hunted for food, including sharks, swordfish, octopus and tuna, saying they feel joy and sadness when they lose their young. “They are our brothers in the ocean.”
A day after talks resumed at UN headquarters to sign a long-awaited treaty to safeguard global marine biodiversity, Fonda, 85, told a news conference that these sea creatures “play with us and feel emotions . How dare we be so lacking in humility that we risk killing them for money and food.”
For almost four years, Fonda said, he has been working with Greenpeace. She came to New York to deliver 5.5 million signatures from people from 157 countries demanding a Global Ocean Treaty.
A fundamental objective of the treaty is to convert 30% of the world’s oceans into marine sanctuaries where fishing is prohibited by 2030.
Growing up in Santa Monica, California, Fonda said she loves the ocean and was at the beach every day when it was warm enough. And that she has been diving in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, in the Galapagos in Ecuador, in the Caribbean and in other parts of the world.
“I have swum with some of the most magnificent creatures and I know that they very well may be smarter than me,” he said. “And I love them, and I think we should all understand that we’re talking about saving the last big wild animals that people hunt for food.”
Fonda said the world cannot survive without healthy oceans. According to scientists, these provide 50% of the oxygen we breathe. But the oceans are subject to overfishing and pollution, including bits of plastic eaten by fish, she said.
Ocean warming as a result of climate change is also killing off the kelp beds that many marine creatures depend on for life, he said, and fertilizer leaching from factory farms “is causing massive and sprawling dead zones in the ocean.” ”.
“The ocean is our ally,” he said. “Let’s love him and respect him.”
Hervé Berville, France’s secretary of state for the sea who sat next to Fonda, said: “We have the political momentum” to overcome the remaining challenges and agree on a treaty protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.
“Even dogs don’t poop in their cage, because they know it gives them security and a home,” she said. “We are pooping in our own cage.” Humans are destroying things they don’t understand, he said.
“The importance of the treaty is that it will force us to behave correctly and to save this great ally that we have called the ocean, the only ocean on this blue planet that can save us,” he said. “There is a lot at stake.”
