The US secretary of state, John Kerry, launched a new global effort on Wednesday to save oceans “under siege” from over-fishing, plastic pollution and climate change.

 

The 16-17 June gathering will for the first time bring together world leaders, business executives, scientists, and environmental activists in an attempt to deal with major threats to oceans.

 

State Department officials said the conference is an important start to a much broader effort to mobilize the international community around ocean protection. It is an attempt to get the international community to focus on three major threats: over-fishing, pollution, and acidification, which is caused by climate change.

 

In recent years, there has been growing concern about the threat to food security from over-fishing. Global fisheries stocks are severely depleted – from illegal and unsustainable fishing, and because of changing migration patterns under climate change.

 

Kerry acknowledged there remained a big gap between regulations and enforcement. Officials and some environmental groups said they hoped the summit would spur efforts to get the public to commit to only buy sustainable seafood, as a way of safeguarding severely depleted fishing stocks.

 

The State Department said it also hoped to set specific targets for reducing plastic that goes into the sea, as well as fertilizer run-off which is polluting water ways and adding to ocean dead zones.

 

Kerry and officials said they hoped the mix of guests at the summit could help unlock efforts to deal with ocean threats. The conference would be part of a longstanding initiative to elevate oceans as part of foreign policy. “We want to come out of it with an action agenda,” he said.