Episode 14: Conserving an incredible ecosystem with Teresa Mackey and Dr David Freestone of the Sargasso Sea Commission

E14: Conserving an incredible ecosystem with Teresa Mackey and Dr David Freestone of the Sargasso Sea Commission

The Sargasso Sea Commission was established in 2014 with the goal of conserving the Sargasso Sea. Ms. Teresa Mackey is the Programme Manager of the Sargasso Sea Commission and has been working with it since 2017. Dr. David Freestone is the Executive Secretary of the Sargasso Sea Commission.He is Visiting Scholar and Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C. He has written widely on the Law of the Sea and international environmental law, and is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law. The Sargasso Sea – on which their project is based  is an incredible diverse ecosystem, also called the golden floating rainforest of the Atlantic.

- Species that use Sargassum as a habitat in the open ocean ( 8:10)

- Location of the Sargasso Sea ( 9:30)

- UN was looking into protecting or conserving areas in the high seas beyond national jurisdictions and the Sargasso Sea Project was designed to show how important it was to do this  (11:30)

- The role of the Sargasso Sea Commission (13:10)

- The Northwest Atlantic Fishery Organization  has closed off all the seamounts in the Sargasso Sea to bottom trawling and to use of gear that might touch the bottom (18:00)

- The Commission received the first high seas ecosystem grant from the Global Environment Facility to do a diagnostic assessment and put forward a strategic action programme for the conservation of the Sargasso Sea(18:30)

- The negative connotations with Sargassum linked to the inundations in the Caribbean made it difficult to convince people to protect the Sargasso Sea (19:45)

- The Sargasso Sea Commission isn’t directly involved in work concerning the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt but supports efforts to minimize negative effects on coastal ecosystems and communities (21:45, 27:35)

- The Commission is worried that more Sargassum natans VIII might  arrive in the Sargasso Sea from the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt and is monitoring for this (25:45)

- Will there likely be laws around which country owns Sargassum as a resource? (29:40)

- International collaboration in early warning systems (31:40)

- Nutrient added Sargassum growth (e.g. for carbon sequestration) should not be tried in the Sargasso Sea (34:30)

- Benefits of Sargassum for beach nourishment in Bermuda (36:32)

- How can we make a legal framework similar to the UNFCCC for Sargassum ?(38:30, 42:25)

Learn more about the Sargasso Sea Commission:

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֍Useful information on the Atlantic Sargassum Belt

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֍ Nonsuch expeditions Sargasso Sea

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