Highlights and images for 11 June 2025

“Supporting small-scale fishers should not be an afterthought but the primary objective of our conversations to foster sustainable fisheries management.” “We cannot leave anyone behind, but sometimes we need to bring people along as well, empowering them to act.”

The words of Editrudith Lukanga, Founding Secretary General, African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network, and LaToya Cantrell, Mayor of New Orleans, US, during the Ocean Action Panels held on the third day of the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), portrayed the focus of deliberations.

Fisheries are integral to the global food system and play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and economic development. Numerous challenges threaten their long-term sustainability, including overfishing, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, harmful subsidies, climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. To address the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of a sustainable Ocean economy, a just, fair, and inclusive transition is critical.

Throughout the day, general debate continued in plenary, with more than 50 high-level delegates offering insights into national and regional efforts to ensure a healthy Ocean, reaffirming their commitment to international efforts in that respect. The full set of statements can be found here: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1z/k1zhnlqy7h, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1f2iiwo6m.

The morning Ocean Action Panel, co-chaired by Bùi Thanh Son, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Viet Nam, and Marija Vučković, Minister for Environmental Protection and Green Transition, Croatia, and moderated by Alfredo Giron, Head of Ocean Action, World Economic Forum, focused on sustainable fisheries management, including supporting small-scale fishers.

Bùi stressed the importance of sustainable fisheries management for achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and urged flexible and adaptive solutions and the development of modern aquaculture. Vučković called for effective monitoring, control, and enforcement systems, including for tackling IUU fishing; and underscored the need to ensure all actors operate under the same commitments and responsibilities.

Taneti Maamau, President of Kiribati, stressed that mobilizing international financing “is not just about resilience, it is about justice.” Jeremiah Manele, Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, emphasized that investment to support small-scale fisheries and ensure climate-resilient infrastructure “is not aid but investment in global food security and Ocean health.”

Participants highlighted, among other things:

• national and regional measures toward sustainable and responsible fisheries management, including for small-scale and community-based fisheries; and
• the need for cooperation, mobilization of finance, capacity building, technology transfer, and data sharing, in particular for small island developing states (SIDS), to combat IUU fishing and strengthen small-scale fisheries.

In the afternoon, an Ocean Action Panel co-chaired by Surangel S. Whipps Jr., President of Palau, and Annette Gibbons, Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, and moderated by Minna Epps, Director, Ocean Team, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), discussed ways to advance sustainable Ocean-based economies, sustainable maritime transport, and coastal community resilience leaving no one behind. 

President Whipps emphasized the need to seize the opportunity the sustainable Ocean economy offers and translate it into “hope and prosperity for every fishing village, every island and coastal community,” stressing that “real transformation requires Ocean equity.”

Gibbons underscored that, for too long, “short-term economic gains were prioritized over marine health,” threatening the integrity of the marine environment and undermining economic opportunities. Gibbons highlighted the Great Bear Sea Project Finance for Permanence, the High Ambition Coalition for a Quiet Ocean, and the 100% Alliance for Sustainable Ocean Management, and urged harmonizing environmental stewardship with economic development, supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).

Panelists and participants highlighted, among other things:

• the need for equity, community empowerment, decent work, and social inclusion to foster sustainable Ocean-based economies, including for women, youth, and IPLCs;
• progress toward decarbonization of maritime transport, including the 2023 International Maritime Organization Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships; and
• the need for finance to be regenerative and accessible, addressing the special circumstances and unique vulnerabilities of SIDS, and shifting toward a people-centered approach based on value creation, inclusivity, and sustainability.