No fewer than 100 environmental organisations have called for an immediate ban on oil and gas exploration in the oceans ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in June.

In an open letter on Wednesday, the 111 groups stated that the ongoing search for fossil fuels in the seabed threatened marine ecosystems, adding that the UNOC3 must be a ”moment of action.”

Nicolas Entrup from OceanCare, who initiated the open letter, said, “These activities cause some of the most intense noise in our seas, with severe and even deadly impacts on marine life from the smallest plankton to large whales.”

He noted that healthy oceans were crucial to combating the worst impacts of climate change and that the letter represented a call for coherence between climate and ocean policies.

”European governments could play a leading role in this effort, as France, Spain, and Portugal had already banned new oil and gas exploration,” he said.

The UNOC3 conference, scheduled for between June 9 and 13 in Nice, would be expected to address these critical issues and develop agreements to protect the ocean. 

(dpa/NAN)