Ocean and Human Health Symposium
Monaco, December 3 & 4, 2020
/ 05/12/2020
- Reading time: 2 min
2 YEARS OF WORK BY THE MONACO SCIENTIFIC CENTRE AND BOSTON COLLEGE,
WITH THE participation of the PRINCE ALBERT II OF MONACO FOUNDATION
The health of the ocean and human health are inseparable. The links are numerous, everywhere on the Planet, for better or for worse…and it is up to us to choose!
On 2 and 3 December 2020, in Monaco, the
Symposium Human Health and the Ocean in a Changing World
This symposium was the culmination of nearly two years of research on the subject by the Centre Scientifique de Monaco and Boston College with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. 44 authors from 18 countries contributed to the report that sheds light on these links.
efforts to link healthy ecosystems to our own...
The ocean provides us with invaluable benefits, which unfortunately can be destroyed by our negligence. Seafood, whether from fishing or aquaculture, has excellent qualities that contribute to our physical or mental health, while being energy and fresh water efficient. Unfortunately, they also accumulate the pollutants we release from the continents.
Plastic waste is the tip of an iceberg of pollutants from agriculture, industry, coal burning… and climate change is increasing the circulation of pathogens and the development of toxic microalgae.
Like climate change, ocean pollution is a cruel injustice. Currents and animals carry pollutants over great distances and, far from the emitting countries, the effects can be formidable on the communities that depend most on seafood for their food or economy, from tropical islands to the Inuit.
But there is no fatality. All pollution is of human origin, usually land-based. We can take action now by going to the source. The ocean can bounce back when the damage stops. This is the message of the Monaco Declaration that concluded the meeting.
A call to take stock of the problem and take action to ” Advance human health and well-being by preventing ocean pollution. “
