Actress and activist Jane Fonda is calling for a treaty to protect marine creatures hunted for food like sharks, swordfish, octopus, and tuna, saying they feel joy and sadness when they lose their offspring and are “our brethren in the ocean.”
On the day that talks resumed at the United Nations, in a news conference at the headquarters to help forge an elusive treaty aimed at safeguarding marine biodiversity, the 85-year-old Oscar winner said “these marine creatures play with us and they feel emotions, and how dare we be so lacking in humility that we will have to kill them for money and food.”
Fonda has worked with Greenpeace for almost four years, and she delivered 5.5 million signatures from people in 157 countries to Rena Lee, the president of the UN negotiations. According to AP, the treaty aims to make 30% of the world’s oceans marine sanctuaries by 2030.
Fonda grew up in Santa Monica, California, and loved the ocean, walking to the beach every day when it was warm. She said she had dived in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Ecuador’s Galapagos, the Caribbean, and elsewhere in the world.
“I’ve swum with some of the most magnificent creatures, and I know that they may very well be more intelligent than me,” Fonda said. “And I love them, and I think that we should all understand that we’re talking about saving the last rare wild animals that are hunted for food.”
According to scientists, 50% of our oxygen comes from the oceans, which Fonda said is essential for the survival of the world. However, the oceans are subject to overfishing and pollution, including plastic pieces eaten by fish.
The heat in the ocean as a result of climate change is also killing kelp beds that many marine creatures depend on to live, she said, and the leaching of fertilizer from industrial farms “is creating massive and expanding dead zones in the ocean.” “The ocean is our ally,” Fonda said. “Let us love and respect it.”