War wrecks threaten our ocean, says Marshall Islands

Biodiversity Conservation
By Samisoni Pareti, Senior Editor, Islands Business in New York

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8 June 2017, UN Ocean Conference, New York - Marshall Islands wants more work done on clearing its oceans of the wrecks and debris of World War II.

Foreign Minister John Salik says it is the hope of his administration that the risks posed by such wrecks including unexploded ordinances would be addressed.

Salik was speaking at a side-event the Pacific regional environmental agency, SPREP organised as part of the UN conference on oceans at the New York headquarters of the United Nations today.

The minister lamented the bad impact of poor nutrition on Marshellese. Changes in diet with an excessive reliance on imported food have made the Marshall Islands to have one of the highest per capita rates of non-communicable disease in the world.

Coastal pollution from plastics prompted the administration to ban the non-bio degradable material.

Foreign Minister Salik called for greater collaboration among country members of the UN in ocean management, saying all nations of the world need to 'paddle the one single canoe of the world.' – S.Pareti/SPREP

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