Group4_A | SDG 14: Life Below Water

Source: goodbysilverstein.com/work/life-below-water-2

Life Below Water

Water bodies occupy about three-quarters of the surface of the Earth. They are home to millions of species and a source of livelihood for billions of humans. However, recent human activities have exploited these resources, having an adverse effect on marine life; many now threatened with extinction. Realizing the need of the hour, all 193 nations came together in 2015 and unanimously adopted a list of seventeen goals: Sustainable Development Goals targeted towards creating a more sustainable future by 2030. One of these seventeen goals is Life Below Water concerning itself with conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. Let us further examine why was there a need to focus on life below water as a part of the sustainable goals.

Why this goal matters?

Climate change and habitat destruction

Climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide has resulted in the acidification and nitrification of marine bodies. All the CO₂released into the atmosphere moves around and finds its way to the oceans. Seawater absorbs up to 40% of this CO₂, which reacts to form carbonic acid. This process, termed acidification, prevents creatures from making their shells. Blue whales feed on plankton, but these planktons are unable to form their shells due to acidification. This, in turn, affects other species and food chains.

Increased plastic production and disposal

The coastal oceans are lined up with plastic waste and pollution, which have found their way deep into the water bodies. Eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year. Seals, whales, and fishes often mistake them for food and eat them. Globally, one-third of turtles have eaten plastic in some form. Plastic threatens these creatures' lives as they often get entangled in them or suffocate due to it.

Illegal and Unregulated Fishing

Nearly 33% of our global fish stock has been exploited. Illegal and unregulated fishing of threatened species brings marine life closer to the brink of extinction and damages the ecosystem. Further, seafood is an essential component of a lot of peoples livelihood and diet, hence needs to be preserved.

These listed issues are just the start. If not tackled in time, they would lead to great destruction and create an ecological imbalance. To combat this and build sustainable marine life, nations across the world have come together.

India's Stand on the Issue

The Indian coastline provides for over 250 million livelihoods. The government has undertaken many steps to preserve the marine ecosystem.

A marine litter and microplastics research program has been set up to frame a marine litter policy. With over 600,000 tons of plastic waste dumped into the seas annually, this policy will help India bring the situation under control and realizing its goal of eliminating single-use plastic. In 2019, the GOI created the first ministry for fisheries, animal husbandry, and dairying. India also focuses on its Mangrove ecosystem and coral reefs.

In order to meet its Goal 14 targets, India has identified five indicators. The indicators are the quality of coastal water, the percentage increase in the mangrove's cover, marine pH, decrease in the use of nitrogen fertilizers, and amount of area under coastal aquaculture. Karnataka appeared as the state with the highest index score in India.

The use of nitrogen fertilizer amongst the coastal states increased by 0.5%, however, a decline of 0.9% was witnessed in Goa. A water quality index of 81-100 is considered very good. None of the states in India currently meet this requirement. An increase of 181 sq. km was observed in the mangrove cover in India. It increased by around 82% in Maharashtra and over 100% in Karnataka. None of the states in India recorded a decline in the mangrove cover.

Deep diving into business responses and implications

Aquaculture

Sustainable Development Goal 14 - Life Below Water has several implications and applications for business. Narrowing down our scope, we will examine the consumption of seafood, practices regarding its production, and the consequences.

Seafood is an incredible source of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Protein, and several other nutrients. However, excessive fishing amongst other factors like water pollution and habitat destruction have severely affected the ecosystems of several species of seafood, lowering their population by consuming and fishing beyond their natural replenishment rate. Over 33% of our global fish stock was being exploited.

There was a strong need for a solution to this problem: Aquaculture. The primary difference between wild-caught and aquaculture is like raising livestock on a farm vs. hunting, except the latter, was in place 1000 years ago, and the former only really took shape 50 years ago.

Recognizing this need, several companies and governments in the last 20-30 years have laid an incredible emphasis on fisheries and aquaculture as an industry. Global seafood production has quadrupled over the last 50 years, with per capita consumption of seafood almost doubling. As of 2013, approximately 155 million tonnes of seafood were produced globally.

World food fish consumption is expected to 18% higher in 2030 than the 2018 levels. Further, what is even more impressive is that aquaculture has overtaken wild-caught as a source of seafood production in recent years. The major counties contributing to seafood production majorly come from East and South Asia, with China, Vietnam, Thailand, and India being major players.

Impact on Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are an aquatic ecosystem, which is created by the symbiotic relationship between coral polyps and algae that live on this coral. They host almost a quarter of all marine life, forming a thriving ecosystem that is home to thousands of species.

However, it is not just marine life that is dependent on these coral reefs. Healthy coral reefs support fisheries as well and are a source of jobs and business for many people and enterprises. Eco-tourism in these areas is primarily centered around these coral reefs as well, through diving tours and recreational fishing trips.

These ecosystems are being damaged extensively through activities like intensive fishing, pollution, and even global warming, leading to large scale habitat destruction. Destructive fishing and exploitation of the reefs, in combination with global warming, causes a change in the temperature and salinity of these reefs. In addition to other types of stressors (such as tropical storms, etc.), these stressors cause a phenomenon called “Coral Bleaching”. The algae that live on the coral polyps are lost, causing these reefs to lose the life in and around them, along with the bright colors that attract other animals to this ecosystem.

Just this year, the world’s largest coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, experienced the largest bleaching event in five years. There are many reasons for this, the most likely being climate change. One of the major industries that have been blamed for this event is the coal industry.

However, there are many ways to combat this and recover, and some companies have taken the initiative. Some ingredients in sunscreen have been identified to be toxic to corals, causing a bill to be passed in Hawaii banning the use of sunscreen with those ingredients. All Good, a cosmetic company, has been making strides in the right direction. Manda Naturals, Babo Botanicals, Raw Elements, along with All Good and other companies, created the Safe Sunscreen Council to create awareness on this matter, hoping to put pressure on lawmakers to bring about more changes like the ban in Hawaii.

Some companies have even made a business out of Coral Reef Restoration, such as ProcoReef. They combine eco-tourism and allow people to participate in these restoration activities. This way, people can see up close and personal, the impact certain practices have on aquatic life, allowing them to make sustainable choices. Intensive fishing can also be combated by sustainable fisheries, which will reduce the pressure on these diverse and thriving ecosystems.

The Way forward

While aquaculture certainly has helped preserve Life Under Water to a certain degree, it does not come without its pitfalls. There are certain drawbacks associated with it, such as a) Water Contamination, b) Higher risk of Contamination, c) Hyper-Intensive farming and d) Unsustainable feed for fish.

There is a need and gradual shift required towards sustainable aquacultural practices. Aquaculture needs to move towards being safer and cleaner. How & Where our fish are being grown is going to be increasingly important.

Several companies, such as the Charoen Pokphand Group in Thailand have recognized the same and aimed to complete vertical integration of their shrimp supply chain. Following are some of the steps being taken:

Feed: The fish used to produce shrimp feed can be traced back to the boat that was used to catch it, to check for overfishing and quality. Further, the feed formula has been innovated to use as much waste material as possible.

Farm: The farm used for growing the shrimp are extremely efficient in terms of having Clean Ponds, Clean Water, and efficient waste management. The external reservoir surrounding the ponds usually contains specific species of plants and fish like tilapia that help purify the water, which then moves to a recycling plant and is re-used for the next cycle. No antibiotics are used to treat the shrimp.

Closer to home, companies like ITC have also recognized the need and launched businesses like ITC Master Chef, having frozen packets of shrimp available at retail. Zooming out from the Aquaculture lens, let us take a look at how other companies contribute to this SDG.

Colgate: The steps taken by Colgate to meet its sustainability strategy is to reduce the manufacturing water intensity to half by 2022, replenishing the water withdrawn from highly stressed areas, and promoting awareness about water conservation. In fact, it managed to reduce the water consumption per ton of by-product manufacture by 33% from 2005 to 2015. In 2015, Colgate employees also participated in the local river cleanups as a part of their Save Water campaign.

Colgate not just looks into the consumption of water in their operations but also looks out for consumption across their value chain, following a cradle-to-cradle policy. About 90% of Colgate's water footprint comes from its consumers.

Nestle: Nestle is currently the third-largest generator of plastic in the world, behind Coke and Pepsi. A large proportion of this plastic ends up in the ocean, directly affecting life below water. The company has been making a conscious effort towards reducing their plastic production by avoiding over 22525 tonnes of packaging material

Unilever: In 2017, The FMCG giant made a commitment ensuring 100% of its plastic packaging used will be either reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. This is aimed at the creation of a circular plastic economy. The World Economic Forum estimates waste from plastic packaging represents a loss of $80–120 billion to the global economy every year.

Along with the measures to make sustainable choices, significant efforts are also being made to clean up the shipping industry. The International Marine Organization (IMO) aims to half the entire industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They are seeking to switch to greener forms of energy, such as LPG. Even though LPG is not entirely emission-free, it has less emissions than coal. Green shipping technology is being encouraged, with $5 billion being pledged for the development of these technologies by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

One of the other major causes of the devastation of these marine habitats is the pollution of oceans with plastics. Even though there has been progress on the form of deterioration of new plastic pollution, there is significant damage caused by the current amount of plastic in the ocean, and that consumed by aquatic creatures already. The scientific community is urging companies to have a lifecycle plan for the plastics produced because remediation has proved to be a mammoth task, with little headway made in the last few decades.

While change is happening, the scale and speed of the same needs to be increased exponentially, to truly make any significant development towards this SDG.

References

https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-14/

https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/SDG-India-Index-2.0_27-Dec.pdf

https://chhs.source.colostate.edu/wild-caught-vs-farm-raised-seafood/#:~:text=Fish%20in%20the%20wild%20eat,to%20the%20farms'%20fortified%20feed.&text=Additionally%2C%20farm%2Draised%20fish%20tend,disease%20due%20to%20farming%20conditions

https://ourworldindata.org/seafood-production

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/brief/sustainable-aquaculture#:~:text=Sustainable%20aquaculture%20is%20a%20dynamic,key%20characteristics%20of%20sustainable%20aquaculture

https://www.cpfworldwide.com/en/business/farm/aquaculture

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-skincare-company-improving-its-products-save-coral-reefs

https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/human-impacts-on-coral-reef-ecosystem

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eshachhabra/2020/09/30/how-businesses-are-trying-to-protect-americas-coral-reefs/?sh=178de2578932

https://www.woi.economist.com/building-a-business-in-coral-reef-restoration/

https://www.businessgreen.com/feature/3084987/sdg14-navigating-an-ocean-of-risks-and-opportunities