Blue Manifesto

At least 30% of the ocean will be highly or fully protected.

We need vulnerable marine and coastal areas to be kept pristine and wild: they will act as safe havens for animals and plants to have a break from harmful human activities and where coastal communities can enjoy a preserved nature. These areas must be restricted to most human activities. They must form an ecologically coherent and continuous network to allow species to travel from one to the other and have long-term budgets, monitoring and management plans.

We will have a clean, pollution-free ocean

For too long, we have assumed that we can treat the ocean as a giant trash bin without repercussions. Plastics, agricultural and chemical pollution are destroying freshwater and marine ecosystems.

The waters we eat from, swim in, and enjoy in so many ways must be protected from the impacts of our polluting activities on land and at sea. Pollution must be stopped at source by changing the way we produce and consume. European policies must ensure that companies and communities stop releasing plastics and microplastics into the sea. We must put an end to the flow of organic pollutants, excess nutrients and hazardous substances from agriculture, aquaculture and industrial and household wastewaters that reach the sea. Shipping activities will also have to drastically reduce their emissions of greenhouse gas, noise and waste, ultimately becoming zero-emission.

We will have shifted to low impact fishing.

We have to put an end to the killing of seabirds, dolphins, whales, turtles and other untargeted animals, as well as the wreckage of habitats; shifting from fuel-intensive, non-selective and destructive fishing, such as bottom trawling, to low impact fishing. Politicians, policy makers and industry will have to work together and abandon the narrow view of fish as stocks we can over-exploit, and instead consider them as vital parts of complex ecosystems, crucial for ocean resilience. Fish populations need to be restored to a level where they can reproduce safely with a surplus we can harvest. To do this, we must listen to scientific advice and stop fishing faster than fish can reproduce. The European Union must step up as a global leader to ensure illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is eradicated in EU waters and globally.

In the whole ocean, the planning of human activities will support the restoration of thriving marine ecosystems

Their cumulative impacts will not add to the pressure from climate change on the ocean. We will transition to an economy, on land and at sea, that allows a harmonious co-existence of humans and the environment we depend on. Certain activities, such as deep-sea mining and oil and gas extraction, are as incompatible with our climate as they are to marine life and will need to be stopped altogether. Other lowimpact activities will remain as part of an ecosystembased blue economy: a sustainable blue economy that respects and adapts to the ecosystem it takes place in.

This is not just wishful thinking. It is a pragmatic, well-researched plan to guide the work of Europe in the next decade

Their cumulative impacts will not add to the pressure from climate change on the ocean. We will transition to an economy, on land and at sea, that allows a harmonious co-existence of humans and the environment we depend on. Certain activities, such as deep-sea mining and oil and gas extraction, are as incompatible with our climate as they are to marine life and will need to be stopped altogether. Other lowimpact activities will remain as part of an ecosystembased blue economy: a sustainable blue economy that respects and adapts to the ecosystem it takes place in.