Category Archives: High Seas

Russia recently announced that it was closing off portions of the Black Sea off the Crimean Peninsula and near the Kerch Strait to foreign warships and other state vessels from April 24 to Oct. 31. The announcement was immediately condemned by both Kyiv and Washington. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price expressed deep concern over Moscows declaration, denouncing the move as another unprovoked escalation in Russias ongoing efforts to undermine and destabilize Ukraine. The closures come at a time when Russia is significantly building up its forces in Crimea and around the Ukrainian border on a scale not seen since it invaded Crimea in 2014, although there are reports that the Kremlin has ordered the withdrawal of some of its troops from the border.

Closure Areas in the Black Sea

All ships, including warships and other state vessels, enjoy a right of innocent passage through foreign territorial seas under Article 17 of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). A passage is innocent if it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state. A passage is considered to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state if a ship engages in one of the activities listed in Article 19, such as intelligence collection and weapons exercises.

The coastal state may adopt laws and regulations relating to innocent passage, which conform to international law, for the reasons specified in Article 21, but, under Article 24, these laws and regulations cannot hamper, deny or impair the right of innocent passage. Under Article 25, the coastal state may, however, take the necessary steps in its territorial sea to prevent passage that is not innocent. In addition, Article 25 allows the coastal state, without discrimination in form or fact among foreign ships, to suspend temporarily in specified areas of its territorial sea the innocent passage of foreign ships if such suspension is essential for the protection of its security, including weapons exercises. The suspension will take effect only after it has been duly published.

The authority of the coastal state to suspend innocent passage, however, is not unlimited. On April 24, Russia announced that it was closing off portions of the Black Sea to foreign warships and other state vessels 24/7 for a period of six months. Russias announced closure is problematic for several reasons. First, under UNCLOS, the suspension of innocent passage must be temporary. The combination of a closure that extends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for six months is not considered temporary. Second, the suspension cannot discriminate in form or fact among foreign ships. Russias declaration applies only to warships and other state vessels and therefore discriminates in fact among types of foreign ships. Third, the suspension of innocent passage must be essential for the security of the coastal state. Russia has not publicly indicated why it is closing off portions of the Black Sea. In short, Russias purported suspension of passage to foreign warships and other state vessels operating off the coast of Crimea appears inconsistent with international law.

To the extent that the closure area extends beyond the 12 nautical mile boundary of its territorial sea, the Worldwide Navigational Warning Service states that Russia may establish temporary warning areas only to advise ships and aircraft that it is conducting activities beyond its territorial sea that may pose a hazard to navigation and overflight. Such warning areas are not exclusion zones. Ships and aircraft retain the right to transit through these zones recognizing that there is an increased risk in doing so. Beyond the territorial sea, under UNCLOS Article 89, no state may subject any part of the high seas, including the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), to its sovereignty. Seaward of the territorial sea, all ships and aircraft enjoy high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight and other internationally lawful uses of the seas related to these freedoms, including military activities. To the extent the Russian closure area purports to close portions of the Black Sea that are beyond the 12 nautical mile boundary, it is inconsistent with international law.

Kerch Strait

The current Russian Notice to Mariners blocks access to the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. This closure violates the 2003 bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which recognizes the importance of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait to the economic development of both Ukraine and Russia. The treaty notes that all disputes concerning the Azov-Kerch area of water should be resolved peacefully. Article 2 of the agreement acknowledges that the Sea of Azov features both Russian and Ukrainian ports and recognizes that Russian and Ukrainian flagged ships enjoy freedom of navigation through the Kerch Strait and within the Sea of Azov. It also recognizes freedom of navigation for foreign flagged commercial ships transiting the strait to or from a Russian or Ukrainian port within the Sea of Azov, as well as for foreign flagged warships transiting to such a port with the permission of either Russia or Ukraine. Russias unilateral and abrupt closure of the Kerch Strait blocks Ukraines access to two of its strategic ports in the Sea of Azov, without consultation with Ukraine, in violation of Russias obligations under the bilateral agreement.

Although the status of the Kerch Strait is unsettled, we suggest Russias closure of the strait violates Article 38 of UNCLOS because the Kerch Strait is considered a strait used for international navigation under Article 37. The strait is completely overlapped by the territorial seas of Ukraine and Russia and connects two areas of EEZs in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. It is also used extensively by ships engaged in international trade, logging nearly 19,500 transits in 2017. The waterway, therefore, meets both the geographic and functional criteria of an international strait where the right of transit passage applies. Article 44 stipulates that coastal states may not suspend transit passage. Thus, Russias closure of the strait and access to the Sea of Azov is in contravention of UNCLOS if the Kerch Strait is governed by the transit passage regime. Two of the principal users of the straitUkraine and members of the European Unionagree that the right of transit passage applies in the Kerch Strait.

Kerch Strait passage is further complicated by Russias illegal construction of the Kerch Bridge in 2018 across the strait, which connects mainland Russia and the Crimean Peninsula. The bridges span limits the height of vessels that may enter the strait and is controlled entirely by Russia, thereby impeding transits. In 2018, Russia employed the bridge and a large container ship to block Ukrainian vessels from entering the strait, triggering a military confrontation that spurred legal cases filed by Ukraine at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The European Union and the United States have denounced the illegal construction of the bridge and in October 2020 and April 2021 they imposed additional sanctions on Russian entities and individuals tied to the construction of the bridge.

The European Parliament asserted in a 2018 resolution that transit passage applies through the Kerch Strait. The resolution condemns the construction of the Kerch Bridge and the laying of underwater cables in the strait without the consent of Ukraine as a clear violation of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. Specifically, the bridge limits the size of ships that can transit the strait to an air draft of less than 33 meters and a length of less than 160 meters. This means that Panamax-class vessels, which accounted for more than 20 percent of all ship traffic through the strait before the construction of the bridge, now cannot enter the Sea of Azov. The resolution additionally condemns Russias practice of blocking and inspecting Ukrainian and foreign-flagged commercial vessels going through the strait, including more than 120 ships registered in the European Union, which were bound to or from Ukrainian ports. The European Parliament views Russias actions as a breach of international maritime law, and it condemned the illegal construction of the Kerch Bridge and Russias infringement of navigational rights, which hamper the right of transit passage through the strait.

As one of the bordering states, Ukraine also maintains that the transit passage regime applies to the Kerch Strait. On Sept. 16, 2016, Ukraine served Russia with a Notification and Statement of Claim under Annex VII to UNCLOS referring to a dispute concerning coastal state rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait. In its memorial, Ukraine requested the Arbitral Tribunal to adjudge and declare that, inter alia, Russia violated UNCLOS, Article 2, through its unauthorized and unilateral construction of submarine power cables, a submarine gas pipeline and the Kerch Bridge across the Kerch Strait; and that Russia violated UNCLOS, Articles 38 and 44, by impeding transit passage through the Kerch Strait. Regarding the status of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, Ukraine specifically denies that it had treated these waters as common internal waters either before or after the execution of the 2003 agreement. Rather, Ukraine asserts that it has applied the regime of transit passage to the strait, as reflected in a 2001 note verbale and 2002 note verbale (paragraph 242). On this basis, Ukraine requested the Arbitral Tribunal to order the Russian Federation to, inter alia, provide Ukraine with appropriate public assurances and guarantees that Russia would not hinder transit passage through the Kerch Strait.

Annexation of Crimea

Russias current closure areas in the Black Sea and control of the Kerch Strait are tactics tied to its ongoing occupation and annexation of Crimea. In 2014, Russia illegally invaded and annexed Crimea in violation of Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter. Russias continued occupation of Ukrainian territory contravenes international law and the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia pledged to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine. The memorandum also requires Russia to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.

Ukraine, the United States and the European Union do not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea and view the ongoing Russian presence in and control of the region as an illegal occupation in violation of Ukraines sovereignty and international law. Similarly, the Council of Europe indicated that the referendum organized in Crimea in March 2014 was unconstitutional under both the Crimean and Ukrainian constitutions and that the outcome of the referendum and Russias illegal annexation of Crimea have no legal effect. The Russian occupation of Crimea has likewise been condemned by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Given that Russia does not have a lawful territorial claim to Crimea, it lacks legal authority to close the territorial sea of Ukraine off the coast of Crimea. And under Article 2 of the U.N. Charter, Ukraine has complete sovereignty over its territorial sea. Russias purported closure of the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea constitutes a threat or use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine, in violation of Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter.

Conclusion

The international community cannot acquiesce to continued encroachment of Ukrainian sovereignty and escalating Russian aggression in the Black Sea region. Ukraines sovereignty over its territorial seas and access to its ports in the Sea of Azov are just as critical to its national security as is its sovereignty over Crimea. Access to the Kerch Strait, as well as freedom of navigation throughout the Black Sea, are essential to the security of the Black Sea states, all European nations and the United States. Notwithstanding the serious economic impacts of hampering navigation in the Black Sea and access to the Sea of Azov, the Russian closure areas limit military operations of the United States and its European and NATO allies. Russia is violating international law and its own regional agreements regarding the status of Ukraines sovereign territory, the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov. There should be greater consequences for these actions.

The ongoing arbitration may reinforce Ukraine and the international communitys criticism of Russias illegal actions, generate further diplomatic costs and increased sanctions, and spur increased naval deployments to the region and freedom of navigation assertions by the United States and NATO. These responses to aggression exert greater pressure on Russia and reinforce the rule of law and freedoms of navigation and overflight in the Black Sea region. Russia is a bully, and the only way to stop a bully is to confront it. NATO must take a firmer stance against Russia and compel Moscow to unwind its war against Ukraine.

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Russia's Illegal Restriction of Navigation in the Black Sea - Lawfare

Karen Weekes has her 2021 Christmas Day plans already boxed off. She will be single-handedly rowing across the Atlantic Ocean.

ver since her parents sat her in a kayak when she was just two years of age, a sense of adventure has anchored her life.

It began when she and a friend, Karen Kennedy, circumvented Ireland in a kayak. Later, there were kayaking trips between the Lofoten Islands of Norway, along the coast of Croatia and around the islands off Scotland.

Then she switched to cycling, undertaking a solo trip across Canada as well as bikes rides in Alaska and along the west coast of the United States.

Karen has twice sailed across the Atlantic. But her latest adventure, a 3,000-mile solo ocean journey in a rowing boat, is her most challenging trip.

A lecturer in the Cork-based Munster Technology University, Karen lives in Kinvara, Co Galway. I was born in Dublin and have lived in a lot of places, but I call Kinvara home, she says.

Her parents loved the outdoors and family outings centred on camping, fishing and sailing trips. Those early adventures had a profound influence on Karen, who has been contemplating her solo attempt across the Atlantic for several years.

Karen holds a doctorate in sports psychology and she has worked with rowers who have crewed boats on ocean trips.

I know what they have been through. I had anticipated waiting for a few years before I did it. Instead, I had been planning to do more solo cycles in places like Mongolia and Uzbekistan.

But due to Covid-19 restrictions I had to put these plans on hold.

Last August I decided to do the row and I have been training and planning for the trip since.

Karen is attempting to become the first Irish woman to complete a solo row of the Atlantic. Only 19 females worldwide have completed the 3,000-mile trip, which she estimates will take at least 75 days. But as a precaution, she will pack enough provisions for 100 days.

Planning the adventure is a mammoth task and Weekes is seeking corporate sponsorship to offset some of the expenses. She has sourced a boat which is currently being serviced in England and will be delivered to Galway later this month. Before long she will be taking it for spins in Galway Bay and along the west coast.

There is a huge amount of logistics involved, such as getting the right navigational and communication equipment. Recently I spent a weekend at the Maritime Naval Base in Cork doing a sea survival course.

During some of the kayaking trips weve been hit by some very high seas and you are always getting close to danger. Weve had situations which weve had to get ourselves out of.

But I suppose this builds up my coping toolbox. It builds up mental strength. Dealing with adversity on the high seas also gives one a great respect for the sea.

Home comforts will be in short supply on the boat.

Well, I wont have a three-hob cooker, she says with a laugh. I will have a jet boiler and will eat a lot of hydrated food, which means pouring hot water into a packet and eating its contents. So I will check what suits my stomach before I go. I will also bring a lot of protein drinks and snack bars and I will have a water-maker on board to desalinate the sea water.

Rowing the Atlantic is a foolproof way to lose weight.

Typically, you will burn between 4,000 and 4,500 calories a day and because you are not eating heavy duty carbs and stuff like that, you will lose weight because you are expending so much energy.

Ultimately, she aims to row for up to 16 hours a day.

I have spoken to a lot of solo rowers who all said that as the trip progresses you become more accustomed to the rowing and become fitter, which enables you to spend more time rowing. The rest of the time is divided between tending to the boat, cooking, eating, navigating and sleeping.

The mental challenge of being alone on the high seas for at least two-and-a-half months fascinates Karen.

When I was doing my PhD, I looked at the cognitive coping strategies of K2 mountaineers. I lived in their base camp in Pakistan for six weeks and interviewed them. I also interviewed elite runners who had competed in 100 mile plus races.

I tested the skills they shared when I cycled across Canada. I really pushed myself hard for 4,000 miles on the bike. So I think that gave me a good insight into how my mind works under pressure and stress. This is going up to another level in terms of pushing the body and mind.

But I am really looking forward to exploring my own head space and seeing where the mind goes. If you think about it and a lot of rowers will say this as well it is only 70 days of your whole life, so it is probably no harm.

The underlying philosophy governing the trip is a desire by Weekes to encourage women to participate in adventure sports and push themselves outside their comfort zone.

She also wants to highlight the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, specifically gender equality and life under the water, which focuses on the conservation of oceans and marine life.

Apart from the obvious threat posed by storms and shipping, there are other dangers lurking in the Atlantic.

Three of the boats in the annual race between Gran Canaria and Antigua got punctured by marlin. They didnt attack the boats but brushed underneath them and damaged their hulls. The crews had to do a quick fix but when youre on your own it is a different ball game.

Her only luxury on the trip will be a robust sound system. I love music and I will have music pumping from the sound system and hopefully I will have a chance to listen to podcasts and audio books as well.

For more information on Karens trip log on to shecando2021.org

Now download the free app for all the latest Sunday World News, Crime, Irish Showbiz and Sport. Available on Apple and Android devices

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Karen Weekes aims to be first Irish woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean - Sunday World

Gwenyth Paltrow has shown she's not only a stunning actress but she is also a successful businesswoman. After dominating the skincare realm with her beauty and wellness company Goop, she's decided to take her and her brand on a new venture: cruise lines.

We're always trying to find the best way to take care of our skin and since celebrities seem to always have an ageless appearance, any tip or beauty secret from them is coveted. Everything from how to wash your face to what moisturizer celebrities use (hello Jennifer Roberts) is praised and admired by us fans.

Well, now that Gwenyth has dominated the beauty and wellness realm, her most recent announcement on Instagram is certainly making waves.

"I am always happiest by, in or on the sea! In 2022 my @goopteam and I are going to join @celebritycruises on their new ship, Celebrity Beyond," she captioned her photo by the sea.

The brand will be taking on cruise lines and while we don't have much information to go on for now, Gwenyth made sure to tease how she'll be approaching this new venture.

This will be her latest hands-on approach with the company and she added that "I'll be behind the scenes, working on some special projects, as Celebrity's newWell-beingAdvisor," she continued."My team @goopis curating programming and fitnesskits to add toCelebrity's wellnesstheexperience.I'm sworn to secrecy on the rest keep an eye out for the details coming soon."

It's sure to be a memorable experience that we can't wait to discover. Goop is known for being a company that doesn't stick to traditional conventional beauty standards. Rather, it invents its own perspective on what wellness and beauty for women should look like.

With a leader like Gwenyth though, it's no surprise that Goop will be taking the high seas. The beauty guru is known for being a clean beauty advocate and has aimed to help her customers find their inner wellness. Before Goop expanded into the empire it is today, she started out her brand by simply sending out a newsletter with advice for those going through the aging process. Now, she's continuing to redefine how beauty and wellness brands operate and we can't wait to see how she takes on the high seas.

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Gwenyth Paltrow's latest gig is taking her out to sea - Woman & Home

Eleven fishermen from Thaengaaipattinam, who were rescued by the Coast Guard after going missing in the high-seas on April 28, returned home on Saturday afternoon.

As the Coast Guard ship escorted Mercedes boat with the 11 fishermen to the Thaengaaipattinam fishing harbour, a group of people ventured into the sea along with officials, including fisheries inspector Sivakumar, his deputy Kani Selvan and marine police inspector Arul Rose to receive them at 4 nautical miles from the harbour.

The fishermen were accorded an emotional reception by their family members while Congress MLA Rajesh Kumar and Congress candidate for Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha by-poll V. Vijay Vasanth felicitated them. After being taken to Vallavilai in a bus, the fishermen, along with their family and the villagers, participated in a Thanksgiving Holy Mass at St. Marys Church.

The 11 fishermen went missing when another boat rammed their mechanised boat 600 nautical miles off the Goa coast on April 23. While the wheelhouse was tossed up into the sea, the fishermen were thrown into the sea. They managed to board the boat again.

The crew of another mechanized boat Periyanayagi also from Vallavilai, saw the capsized wheelhouse of Mercedes and inferred that the boat had sunk after the mishap and informed their families over the satellite phone about it. After the district administration got the message from the family members, the Centre was alerted which launched a search operation.

Meanwhile, S. Joseph Franklin, owner of Mercedes, and who steered the boat contacted his family on April 28 morning via the satellite phone to inform them that all of them were safe.

On information from the State government, the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Center (MRCC) of the Coast Guard in Mumbai activated international safety net to alert merchant vessels transiting near the reported position.

Simultaneously, Samudra Prahari of the Coast Guard was diverted for search. MRCC (Mumbai) coordinated with merchant vessel Maersk Horsburgh to join the search operation along with fishing boats operating in the area.

As the reported position was located in Pakistan Search and Rescue Region, MRCC Karachi was requested for assistance as per International Marine Organisation (IMO) norms in vogue.

Also having received information about the location of the boat, Coast Guard ship Vikram located the boat on April 29, around 25 nautical miles from Suheli Par, Lakshadweep Islands.

It provided first aid to the crew of Mercedes and confirmed the safety of all the crew. Vikram escorted the fishing boat to its base port at Thengapattanam fishing harbour.

We thank the Union government for the swift measures taken to locate the missing fishermen, said Sunil Sabariar of Vallavilai.

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Rescued by Coast Guard, 11 fishermen return home - The Hindu

Seaspiracy, the Netflix documentary premiered in March 2021 which exposes the darker side to the fishing industry, has caused much controversy since its release. One of the more dramatic claims made in the film was that, due to fishing, all of the fish in the sea will have disappeared by 2048.

To check this fact, we asked 8 experts in fisheries sciences, marine sciences, and ecology:Will the oceans be empty of fish by 2048?. Sevenout of eight answered'extremely unlikely'.

Ali Tabrizi, Seaspiracy's director and narrator, says in the documentary that "if current fishing trends continue, we will see virtually empty oceans by the year 2048". This claim has been echoed across manynews articlesand blogs since it was made in 2006, but where does it come from?

Ascientific paperpublished inScienceby Boris Worm and colleagues in 2006 which looked at the decline of marine populations and species. They found that loss of marine biodiversity has important effects on the ecosystem.

In one sentence in the concluding paragraph, they alsosaid thatthe "current trend is of serious concern because it projects the global collapse of all taxa currently fished by the mid-21stcentury".

Dr Michael Melnychuk, an expert in fisheries sciences from Washington University, highlights some of the issues with the 2006 prediction. Hesaysthat "the definitions of 'collapsed' by the authors are based on catch data, but these do not necessarily reflect abundances of fish populations".

He alsopoints outthat the method used by the authors to extrapolate data into the future was not realistic.

Dr Robert Steneck, an expert in oceanography from Maine University,highlightsthat "three years after the initial publicationWorm et al 2009(also published in Science) pointed out that many fish stocks are rebuilding globally".

Since 2006, the authors have also tried to emphasize the broader conclusions of their findingsinstead of this prediction.

There have also beennumerous scientific publicationsheavily criticizing the 2048 prediction for the reasons highlighted by Dr Melnychuk, but unfortunately this claim has stuck.

Dr Melnychukhighlightsa final reason why the 2048 prediction is inaccurate, it "assumes that our hands are tied and these trends will continue indefinitely".

Seapiracy claimed that oceans will be empty of fish by 2048 even though this prediction has been strongly refuted for over 10 years. Othersimilarly contentious claimswere made throughout the film in order to expose the darker side of the fishing industry and suggest that the only way to save the oceans is to stop fishing altogether.

Some of the experts believe that this overly negative image of the fishing industry could do more harm than good to the oceans.

Dr Alec Christie, an expert in marine biology from the University of Cambridge,says"the way this movie used data from scientific papers was a good example of questionable research practices - cherry-picking and unjustifiable and opaquely extrapolating data beyond the bounds of the study."

Dr Holden Harris, an expert in Fisheries Sciences from Florida University,addsthat Seaspiracy omitted some of the achievements in sustainable fishing.

"The convenient oversight of not including the many, many success stories of good management guided by science and community (e.g., US fisheries) provides an extremist view of the issue," says Harris.

"I also personally know some of the interviewees in the film, who have spent their life work in ocean conservation, and do not deserve the false light cast on to them.This is not how progress is made."

However, not all the experts agreed that the inaccuracies of Seaspiracy mean it does more harm than good. Dr Simon Allen, an expert in marine science from Bristol University,points outthat "at the end of the day, love it or loathe it, Seaspiracy has got some tongues wagging and people asking questions."

All the experts agreed with one claim made by Seaspiracy: overfishing is a serious issue.

Dr Harrissaysthat "today, it's likely that 1/3 of the world's fish stocks worldwide are overexploited or depleted. This is certainly an issue that deserves widespread concern."

Dr Allenaddsthat "overfishing is still the biggest problem on the global high seas".

Dr Christie's concluding opinion on Seaspiracyis that"we all agree that its message of the ecological harm of industrial fisheries is a major urgent issue, but we need to present facts not fiction and unite, build consensus, and use rational arguments to convince people to change."

It is unlikely that the oceans will be empty of fish by 2048. Although experts disagreed on the effectiveness of the Seaspiracy documentary to help protect the oceans, they all agreed that overfishing is a major issue.

Article based on 8 expert answers to this question: Will the oceans be empty of fish by 2048?

This expert response was published in partnership with independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter here.

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Fact Check: Will The Oceans Be Empty of Fish by 2048, And Other Seaspiracy Concerns - ScienceAlert

Saturday and Sunday, young entrepreneurs will have lemonade stands set up throughout the Fort Hood area to include Harker Heights, Killeen, Fort Hood, Copperas Cove and Belton in celebration of Lemonade Day.

Lemonade Day Weekend is a rain or shine event.

This weekend marks 12 years of Lemonade Day in the Fort Hood area. Lemonade Day participants have spent the last few months learning how to start, own and operate their own business a lemonade stand. Some youth will be set up in front of their homes, while others have asked permission of a local business to use their store front. On Lemonade Day, the cities of Harker Heights, Killeen and Copperas Cove allow Lemonade Day participants to set up in city parks as well. With their profits, participants are encouraged to spend a little, save a little, and give a little of their profits, according to a news release from Lemonade Day.

Lemonade Day is a free, community program dedicated to teaching children, pre-K through high school, how to start, own and operate their own business a lemonade stand. Lemonade Day is presented by First National Bank Texas and Fort Hood National Bank, along with Fort Hood Family Housing and local sponsor H-E-B. For more information about Lemonade Day, visit http://forthood.lemonadeday.org.

The community can view lemonade stand locations posted by participants on the Stand Locator Map. Visit forthood.lemonadeday.org and click the red Stands on the Map button. Potential customers can hover over each dot to view location details. The map is updated daily.

Here are some of the locations:

Bushs Chicken Cove, 112 W. Highway 190, in Copperas Cove

Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday

Catching the Rainbow & LEGO Against Bullying, 1437 Lubbock Drive, in Copperas Cove

Hours: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday & Sunday

Dr. Seuss on the Loose Lemonade

Copperas Cove Leader Press, 2210 E. Business Highway 190, in Copperas Cove

Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Oceans Bounty Lemonade, High Seas for Heroes

Walgreens, 527 U.S. Highway 190, in Copperas Cove

Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

PX Exchange on Clear Creek, BLDG 4250, Clear Creek Road, in Fort Hood

Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

PX Exchange on Clear Creek, BLDG 4250, Clear Creek Road, in Fort Hood

Hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday

Samuels Real Dill Pickles, 51512-1 TAOS St., in Fort Hood

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday

Songhai Youth Entrepreneurs

Twice as Funny Comedy Lounge, 4505 E. Veterans Memorial Blvd., in Killeen

Nutree Fitness, 503 N 38th St., in Killeen

Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Saturday

Miss B Lemonade & The 3 Bs Lemonade

Petco, 201 E Central Texas Expy., in Harker Heights

Hours: 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday

Triple Es Lemonade, 100 Mountain Lion Road, in Harker Heights

Hours: 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday

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12th Lemonade Day in the Fort Hood area this weekend - The Killeen Daily Herald

At least ten bodies were found near the Libyan coast next to an inflatable boat that sank around 130 migrants on board in the Mediterranean Sea, according to information released Thursday by the NGO SOS Mditerrane (22).

Since our arrival on the site, we have not found any survivors, despite the fact that we saw at least ten bodies near the wreckage of the boat, explained in a note Luisa Albera, search and rescue coordinator on board. from Ocean Viking, the NGO humanitarian ship.

We have no hope of finding any survivors, said Emmanuelle Chaze, journalist part of the ships crew, in a telephone interview with the AFP news agency.

SOS Mditerrane received on Tuesday (20) an alert on the presence of three ships in international waters near the Libyan coast. The warning was sent by a group of volunteers who reported on migrants in difficulty on the high seas. Then, the Ocean Viking and freighters approached the area, despite the difficult sailing conditions, with heavy waves. six meters.

One of the merchant ships found three bodies of dead migrants, then a device from Frontex, the European border control agency, found the remains of the inflatable boat.

The routes from Africa to Europe via the Mediterranean have been strengthened in recent years, which does not prevent attempts on this route or across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands, for example.

In this case, the crossings can be as good or more dangerous as they are expensive. Fisherman Djiby Dieng, 21, told AFP news agency that the crossing generally costs between 150,000 and 300,000 CFA francs (1,400 to 2,800 reais) per person, an amount equivalent to more than two months income of a fisherman. In some cases, family and friends make a kitty to collect the money.

For his crossing, Dieng did not pay, as he made a deal to be one of the pilots. Travelers left the coast in small boats, which passed unnoticed among the dozens of fishing boats.

Then, on the high seas, they went to a large canoe, about 20 meters, where they would make the crossing. However, they are not always able to reach their destination. There were 131 of us. There were people of all ages, young, old. But we ran out of water and food. We had about 15 dehydrated people. So, near the Moroccan coast, we decided to stop, says Dieng.

This year alone, at least 453 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, most on the central route connecting the coasts of Tunisia and Libya to those of Italy.

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Boat of 130 migrants sinks in the Mediterranean 22/04/2021 World KSU | The Sentinel Newspaper - KSU | The Sentinel Newspaper

The mystery surrounding the elusive giant squid has fed popular folklore stories for centuries such as that of the famous kraken, the colossal sea creature that attacked ships on the high seas. However, the reality is quite different, since these cephalopods such as Architeuthis dux, the largest known species, are very difficult to observe.

Research recently published in the journal Deep Sea Research tries to explain why these giants of the deep sea are so elusive and shows how a team of scientists managed to film the first images of this species in its natural habitat in 2012 in Japan and later in 2019 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The study authors, some of whom were present at the 2019 sighting, argue that these creatures are elusive due, in part, to their huge eyes.

In the depths of the ocean where these squids live, hardly any sunlight penetrates, so this cephalopod developed the biggest eyes of the animal kingdom, the size of a basketball, reports Live Science.

These eyes, apt to roam the darkness of the ocean, also make them more sensitive to lights that marine researchers incorporate into their submersibles and cameras, which is why it is so difficult to find giant squid in their natural habitats.

In order to capture this animal, the researchers who participated in the successful experiments of 2012 and 2019 they turned off the lights on their submersible upon reaching the desired sea depths, which allowed these squid to approach the apparatus.

In addition, the team illuminated his camera with a dim red light instead of the white one that is usually used for expeditions of this type. The use of red light may therefore be a less obtrusive method of illuminating deep-sea species, the authors indicate in the study.

The scientists also decided to use a lure with blue light nicknamed E-Jelly that mimicked the movement and glow of a bioluminescent jellyfish to further attract squid to them.

The researchers conclude that this method of combining low-light equipment with bioluminescent baits has been shown to the most effective to get the giant squid out of hiding and can be filmed.

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Statue of Liberty in the Champ-de-Mars. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Getty)

Give us liberty and give them death, said David Duke at a rally for the Ku Klux Klan in Baton Rouge, La., in 1975. His thunderous words were a play on the famous quotation from Patrick Henry, Give me liberty or give me death. Henrys statement was intended to express his commitment to the well-known American ideal of freedom, which he and his peers took to be at stake in their forthcoming revolutionary struggle with the British Empire. But when Duke gave this speech as the Grand Dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he had in mind another ideal with deep roots in American history: racial domination.Books in Review

The two men could hardly have more different legacies. Henry is venerated as a founding father, while Duke is reviled as a disgraceful bigot. But any attempt to delegitimize Dukes appropriation of Henrys words and the ideal they represent must also contend with an uncomfortable and inconvenient truth: The freedom that Henry, a plantation and slave owner, and his fellow founders took to be worth defending was also linked to the racial domination that organized life and labor in the American colonies. The revolution was a struggle for self-rule, but it also sought this self-rule in order to control the land conquered from Native Americans and the labor extorted from abducted Africans. It was a politics of freedom entwined, from the outset, with a politics of enslavement and exploitation.

Tyler Stovalls new book, White Freedom, attempts to answer the questions raised by this juxtaposition of Duke and Henry. How, he asks, can we square the acme of Western civilization, the ideal of liberty celebrated in the US and French republics, with its nadir, that of racial slavery, colonialism, and genocide? In plainer terms, How is it, as the English writer Samuel Johnson sardonically asked in 1775, the same year as Henrys address, that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of [enslaved] negroes?

Through painstaking and comprehensive historical research, Stovall addresses these questions by means of the concept named in his books title: white freedom. For centuries, he argues, writers, intellectuals, and politicians have tried various strategies to reconcile the United States and Frances brutal histories of racial domination, settler conquest, and slavery with their stated commitments to freedom. Many of these strategies have hinged on an attempt to use one to explain away the other. Those who defend the historical legacies of both countries insist that liberty is their true moral foundation; racism, colonialism, and slavery were transitory imperfections that the march of progress eventually brought to an end. Those who view them as irredeemable often contend the reverse: that racism is, as Stovall puts it, the true inescapable reality of Western culture and society. But as he demonstrates, at the heart of the two nations were both a commitment to liberty and a vision of society in which this liberty was unequally distributed and deeply racialized. The result was freedom for those at the top of the racial hierarchy, supported by and premised upon the unfreedom of those at the bottom.

According to Stovall, then, the dueling realities of freedom and slavery, liberty and domination, master and slave, are not just a clash of opposites; instead, they have been and continue to be counterparts in the making of modern history. To be free, Stovall notes, has long meant to be white, and to be white has conversely long meant to be free.

To explain the symbiotic relationship between racism and freedom, Stovall begins by charting the history of liberty and domination in modern North Atlantic history. His first chapter recounts the fascinating history of piracy, particularly in the Caribbean, including how the French and US republics sought to restrict the practice. Among the Caribbean piratesmany of whom had formerly been enslaveda rough racial democracy prevailed. Electing and removing their captains by the principle of one man, one vote, many of the pirate outfits were in fact more democratic than the republics from which they stole. But the pirates self-government and their freedom at sea also threatened French and US sovereignty: They attacked shipping lanes key to transatlantic commerce; they made coastal territories vulnerable; and their sense of democratic equality posed a challenge to the republics racial hierarchies both at home and abroad. For the US and French republics to ensure their reigns, the pirates and their savage freedom had to be eliminated.

The drive to develop navies and eliminate piracy on the high seas also came home to roost. Much as the United States and France sought to suppress the pirates, Stovall contends, they sought to dominate and control the children in their own countries, and they did so in the name of a new form of freedom: one defined not by bucking formal power structures (as the pirates did) but by respecting them. Resistant to authoritarian control, the teenager and the pirate alike needed to be introduced to new forms of disciplinesystems of domination that American and French society insisted enabled new forms of liberty.Current Issue

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Out of this new definition of freedom also came, Stovall notes, a racialization of those deemed not worthy to receive it. On the one hand was a freedom defined by savagery and subalterns; on the other was a set of natural liberties and rights owed only to adult white Europeans, whether they lived in America or in Europe. As colonization and the Atlantic slave trade both expanded, they became even more integral to justifying the regimes of domination and violence erected by those republics in the pursuit of freedom.

This new notion of freedom was not only racialized but gendered and then also domesticated. While the French revolutionary symbol known as Marianne is famously depicted in Eugne Delacroixs painting Liberty Leading the People as a bare-chested woman wielding a musket and bayonet in the violence against the old regime, her descendant the Statue of Libertygiven to the United States by Franceoffers a contrasting depiction of liberty: a serene, robed woman holding a torch rather than a weapon. Freedom, yes, Lady Liberty tells us, but a pacified form of it.

Stovall then turns to the way this new domesticated and racialized mode of freedom fit into the peculiar double movement of world politics over the 18th and 19th centuries. While liberal democracy and expanded social freedoms began to extend throughout the domestic spheres of American and European republics like the United States and France, these same powers expanded their authoritarian colonial control over much of the rest of the world.

How could these nations reconcile their valorization of self-government with their actual practices of slavery and colonialismthe ultimate forms of government by others? This is where Stovalls earlier story about how freedom became racialized in the 18th and 19th centuries intersects with his story about how freedom became the province of the few and not the many. Racism helped square the circle: The right and privilege of self-government was linked to what was perceived as Europeans unique capacity for rational thought. As John Stuart Mill put it in On Liberty, the doctrine of liberty ought to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. Despotism, on the other hand, was a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement.

In France, the tensions between the new republics commitment to freedom and its actual violence and domination were well represented by the Marquis de Condorcet. The fiery French radical was one of slaverys most vociferous European foes, yet he also opposed the immediate emancipation of the enslaved. As with the American founding fathers, slavery as a metaphor for unfreedom was a clear and present evil, but on the actual social institution that structured the lives of Africans throughout the French Empire, Condorcet and his fellow abolitionists demanded a bit of nuance. The Society for the Friends of the Blacks, of which he was a member, attempted to get the National Assembly to pass a motion to end French participation in the slave trade, but it stopped short of an attempt to end the slave trade itself. Stovall reports that Condorcet also insisted that enslaved Black people were unprepared for emancipation and that he ultimately foresaw freedom coming to blacks when they merged with and disappeared into the white population through miscegenation.

Condorcet and the French radicals were not alone. Most of the Enlightenments intellectuals, from Immanuel Kant to the physician Franois Bernier, offered elaborate theories that affirmed the right to freedom for white Europeans while simultaneously producing cutting-edge racial science. Kant, for instance, wrote that there was only one innate right, freedom, which meant independence from being constrained by anothers choice. Yet he also wrote approvingly of a critique of a proposal to free Black slaves, since they lacked the mental capacity to be good laborers without being coerced into activity. Likewise, he regarded Native people in North America as incapable of any culture and far below even the Negro in their adaptability and strength. The embrace of freedom and the embrace of racism were complementary positions, not contradictory ones: The case for freedom for Europeans was also the case for unfreedom for the rest of the world.

In the United States, Thomas Jefferson perhaps best embodied this vision of freedom, even if there were many other contenders, such as Patrick Henry. In 1776, Jefferson famously wrote the Declaration of Independence, which held that all men are created equal and endowed with an inalienable right to liberty, even though he owned more than 600 human beingssurely some sort of conflict, should we take his words literally. He also wrote, in 1781, Notes on the State of Virginia, which held that Black Americansfree or enslavedshould be removed beyond the reach of mixture. It is not against experience to suppose, Jefferson argued, that different species of the same genus, or varieties of the same species, may possess different qualifications. Will not a lover of natural history then, one who views the gradations in all the races of animals with the eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those in the department of man as distinct as nature has formed them? This unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people.

Whether in Condorcets France or Jeffersons America, racism servedrather transparentlyto justify those political institutions that were sharply and clearly opposed to the letter of the principles being invoked to legitimate them. By naturalizing European superiority, Stovall shows, Jefferson, Condorcet, and other thinkers could justify a system of freedom for some while complacently accepting the domination of many othersand the white in white freedom was societys way of organizing who played which role.

Some may argue that the examples of Jefferson, Condorcet, and the rest imply that racial domination boils down to errors in thinking about race and justice, or that white freedom is merely an inconsistency in reasoning from abstract ideals and principles to concrete political questions. But what drove the formation of republican freedom and its racialized forms of enslavement and colonization was material more than ideational. These thinkers were explaining an economic, political, and military stratification of society that already existed and that had not waited for such justifications. After all, by the time they were writing, the European empires had been amassing wealth through enslaved labor for several generations. These men were offering highbrow justifications of this system of exploitation only to make it palatable to polite society. As Aim Csaire explained in his classic Discourse on Colonialism, killing and plunder tend to come first and the slavering apologists later. The conquistadors spent vastly more effort justifying themselves with sword and bullet; putting a flattering rhetorical cloak on naked plunder was a pressing concern only for later generations.

Despite Stovalls focus on cultural and intellectual history, this primacy of violent domination proves to be a central theme in White Freedom, and in his final chapters he pays close attention to how the Wests pursuit of political power and profits has proved more historically decisive than the doctrines of liberty and racism that its intellectuals devised to justify this pursuit. Britain and France saw World War I, for example, not as a struggle to end imperial domination but as an opportunity to expand itso long as they were the ones doing the dominating. In the midst of fierce battles in France and what is now Iraq, they signed the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide the Ottoman Empire between them at the wars end. This did not stop many nations from seeking to free themselves from this domination after the war, as national liberation struggles and revolts erupted from India to Ireland. Nevertheless, the conclusion of World War I marked a return to a politics that saw freedom as an ideal for some but not all. In 1919, in the Punjabi town of Amritsar, British colonial troops raked protesters with machine gun fire, killing hundreds, rather than allow a demonstration against their rule. In Korea, millions of people organized against Japanese colonialism, prompting a similarly violent response that claimed thousands of lives, while in France, the government resorted to the mass deportation of exotic Chinese laborers from its colonies throughout the Caribbean and Africa, replacing them with workers from southern and eastern Europe. During the same year in the United States, there was widespread racial violence and terrorism, especially against returning Black veterans, who were more assertive of their right to self-rule than white freedom could countenance. The summer after the wars conclusion was known in the United States as the Red Summer for its massive wave of violence nationwide, as white mobs looked to restore the racial order.

For Stovall, this march of white freedom continued into World War II and the Cold War years. Nazi Germany sought to expand its empire while also racially purifying its society at home, and it did so under the banner of freedom for the German Volkproviding one of the books most powerful and persuasive demonstrations of the complementary relationship between freedom and race.

Looking to the model of racial domination developed by the United States, the Third Reich passed the Nuremberg Laws, which installed racialized tiers of legal protections, stripping German Jews of their citizenship and barring sex and marriage between Germans and non-Germans. This program of racialization and marginalization eventually culminated in the death campswhich also drew on techniques of genocide the German Empire had used in Namibiawhere millions of Europes Jews, a half million of its Romani, and others targeted for their sexual or gender identity or physical or mental disabilities perished. In this way, the Nazis brought home to Europe the violence and racial subjugation that the European powers had practiced in their colonies, in what Hannah Arendt called the boomerang effect of imperialism.

The defeat of the Third Reich represented a powerful blow to this nakedly racist and authoritarian conception of white freedom. As Stovall shows, however, the postwar consensus that arose out of the Allies victory posed another challenge to realizing a vision of freedom cut loose from racism. President Harry Truman presided over the ascendant nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which cast themselves as representatives of the free world against the captive nations of the Soviet sphere. But this program of freedom curiously failed to include the captive nations of the British and French empiresnations that, as Stovall points out, were not referred to as nations at all.

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These captive nations, however, had their own conception of freedom and were willing to fight for it. Figures like Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere challenged the Wests continued embrace of racial domination with a demand for freedom from empire. This led, Stovall writes, to one of the most dramatic series of events in modern world history, as the number of member states of the United Nations swelled from 55 in 1946 to more than double that by 1965, the vast majority of them former colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. World War II and its political aftermath challenged the idea of white freedom to an unprecedented degree in modern history, he concludes. A new conception of freedom, cut loose from its racialized origins, began to proliferate, even if it remained threatened by both the former imperial powers of Europe and the ascendant one in the United States.

While the concept of white freedom is Stovalls, the subject of how freedom and race are entwined is not new. Carole Patemans insightful analysis of the gender domination inherent to the liberal social compact in The Sexual Contract inspired a similar analysis by Charles Mills in his 1994 book The Racial Contract, which considered how the social compact that safeguards liberal freedoms is also composed of several other compacts that protect the freedom of white people to dominate and exploit the nonwhite peoples of the world. Radical political theorists like Neville Alexander, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Oliver Cox made their own cases for how liberal freedom had become racialized, insisting that, contrary to what many claim, the social structure and political ideals of liberal democracies can coexist with racial domination.

Outside the academy, the critical notion of white freedom has influenced much of the Black activism of the past century to the present day. Ida B. Wells, for instance, outlined many of the same connections between freedom and race. In her turn-of-the-century speech Lynch Law in America, she rejected a description of lynching as the sudden outburst of an insane mob, characterizing it instead as the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avow that there is an unwritten law, above and beyond the written law, that allows and even demands violence against Black and Indigenous people, while reserving the freedom-preserving written law for whites.

Half a century later, Aim Csaire and an ascendant generation of anticolonial activists leveled similar accusations at the French Empire and the broader constellation of Western powers that enabled it, with Csaire writing that the great thing he held against such pseudo-humanism is that its very concept of human rights is sordidly racist.

While Stovalls account of freedom and race is a compelling one, he might have done more with this deeper critical tradition, if only because so many of its advocates put forth visions of a freedom liberated from the shackles of racism. For example, along with the Caribbean pirates and Frances Marianne, he might have considered how maroon society and the liberated colonies offered alternative conceptions of emancipation. While Stovall provides a thoughtful answer to the question What does it mean for freedom to be white?, the reader may also want one to the question What does it mean for freedom not to be white?

Nonetheless, White Freedoms strengths resonate far more than its weaknesses. The book is a treasure trove of historical detail, but its also written clearly and persuasively, such that the overarching themes of race and freedom consistently ring louder than the minutiae. Its focus also helps Stovall to provide a coherent narrative about a political history of multiple countries spanning multiple centuries. His history of American and French racial politics outside of their domestic sphere is commendable, making these empires accountable for their total domains of control and influence, including their oft-ignored colonial endeavors and effects on global politics.

White Freedom is also a worthy addition to the recent surge of work rethinking the connection between race and other fundamental aspects of our social system, from the discussions of The New York Times 1619 Project and critical race theory to leftist debates about racial capitalism. The recent global protests against racism and police violence suggest that these issues may continue to powerfully shape politics for quite some time.

Stovall concludes with a juxtaposition of two US presidents: Ronald Reagan, who demanded in 1987 that the Berlin Wall be torn down in the interest of freedom, and Donald Trump, who demandedalong with the House Freedom Caucusthat the United States build a wall along its border with Mexico. In both cases, freedom represented a specific vision: a social order dominated by the United States. Reagans speech called for the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the rise of a new world order of unregulated capitalism upon which white freedom was built. In the ensuing era of unchallenged capitalism, Trump sought to build a wall that would free Americans from the burden of sharing their zones of wealth and domination with the Global South.

White freedom, Stovall reminds us, has a history, but it is no mere historical idea: Its defenders inherit a balance of power and the political advantages that centuries of white freedom have helped shape. But we inheritors of a different legacythe efforts of those who forced white freedom into key retreats over the past centuries, thereby increasing the political freedoms of most of the people on this planetare also alive and well. As the late Nipsey Hussle once said, You build walls, we gon prolly dig holes.

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The Entwined History of Freedom and Racism - The Nation

The ocean covers about 70% of Earth and provides a suite of vital services to humanity, but the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Servicesreports that threats ranging from unsustainable fishing to climate change could leave more than half of marine species at risk of extinction by 2100. Building resilience of our ocean while boosting fisheries, marine-based livelihoods, and economies is possible, in part, through new and expanded marine protected areas (MPAs). The Blue Nature Alliancea new partnership between Conservation International, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Global Environment Facility, Minderoo Foundation, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundationis working to conserve 18 million square kilometers over the next five years. Shubash Lohani, a project director with Blue Nature Alliance, explains how effective marine protection can help protect the ocean and support people. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

A:The Blue Nature Alliance aims to support the conservation of 18 million square kilometers (6.9 million square miles) through the creation of new protected areas and expansion, improved management, or increased protections in existing ones. The alliance will invest in places that are significant to ocean biodiversity and people with the aim of achieving the highest level of protection possible while recognizing the rights of Indigenous peoples and working alongside local communities. In addition to MPAs, Blue Nature Alliance will also support other effective area-based conservation measures, and innovative place-based interventions designed to achieve biodiversity conservation outcomes. The alliance is currently working on large-scale efforts in Fijis Lau Seascape, Antarcticas Southern Ocean and Tristan da Cunha to collectively secure protections over 4.8 million square kilometers (1.9 million square miles) of the ocean. Looking forward, we expect to soon partner on initiatives in Canada, Palau, Seychelles and the Western Indian Ocean, which aim to strengthen and enhance the protection of nearly 2 million square kilometers (734,000 square miles) of the ocean. In addition, 18 additional Blue Nature Alliance engagements have been identified across North and South America, Europe, and the Asian Pacific region.

A: Studies consistently show that large, fully protected marine reserves protect biodiversity, safeguard traditional cultures closely linked to the sea, and allow plant and animal species to recover, all of which benefit areas far beyond the boundaries of the protected areas. However as of April 2021, according to the Marine Protection Atlas, a project of the Marine Conservation Institute, only 7.8% of the ocean is in some form of protection. Of that just 2.7% of the ocean is strongly protected in a no-take marine reserve or MPA with severe restrictions on extraction. To reap the full biological and economic benefits, MPAs must be well-designed and well-managed. They need robust management plans along with sufficient staffing, equipment, and funding. The International Union for Conservation of Nature recommends fully protecting at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030, and today more than 70 countries have publicly supported this goal. But its not just about protecting more of the ocean. We also need to protect better. This is where the Blue Nature Alliance can help drive change, by supporting the conditions needed for effective large-scale ocean conservation.

A: Conservation depends on collaboration of all ocean stakeholders in establishing and managing the MPAs. It is also important to share that Indigenous peoples and local communities are among the most effective stewards of biodiversity, with landmark United Nations and peer-reviewed research documenting their contribution. The Blue Nature Alliance will work to ensure all partners are engaged in designing and implementing projects to safeguard biodiversity and protect and conserve the ocean. The economic benefits of protected areas also extend to people who provide sustainable tourism and those engaged in nearby fisheries, as studies show that MPAs also lead to higher fish populations in neighboring, unprotected areas.

A: Rapid scaling up of meaningful and effective marine protections is possible only through a shared ambition and strategic partnerships, which is why Blue Nature Alliance will bring together NGOs, governments, local communities, and the private sector to provide expertise and support to help achieve large-scale ocean conservation. The alliances broad definition of success includes seeing any site we work on advance in its conservation journey. Our target of conserving 18 million square kilometers is our main measure of success but will not be the only one. We want to significantly support the goal to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030. To achieve this, we need a treaty to protect the high seas, action at CCAMLR to protect the Antarctic Southern Ocean, marine protections in country national waters, sustained financing to ensure effective conservation measures today and into the future, and the participation and inclusion of all ocean stakeholders. The Blue Nature Alliance aims to cultivate the enabling conditions that are necessary to reach this ambitious goal. Well build upon the success and lessons of current and past projects, and in some cases will invest in those sites to achieve durable conservation and social outcomes. The alliance is a natural evolution of Pews long-standing commitment to protect the ocean.

A: Our ambitions must be as big as the ocean. They need to be global, diverse, and acknowledge that we are all part of the same ecosystem, and the only way to achieve our goals is to bring in partnerships at all levels, working with leaders from coastal communities to national and global decision-makers, like the United Nations. Blue Nature Alliance partners are local champions and leaders in the field of ocean conservation, with experience in advocacy, field implementation, communications, and long-term financing. Through our partnership approach, well have the assets and expertise needed to achieve results that could not be reached by any organization alone.

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New Partnership Seeks to Protect 18 Million Square Kilometers of Ocean Over Next Five Years - The Pew Charitable Trusts