Press Releases
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Ted Danson and Alexandra Cousteau headline Oceana’s SeaChange Summer Party
Supporters gathered in Laguna Beach on Saturday evening to support Oceana, the world’s largest ocean conservation organization. Ted Danson, Alexandra Cousteau, Sally Pressman, Austin Nichols, Jason and Ashley Wahler, Angela... Read More
Monday, September 9, 2019
Oceana Launches Campaign in U.S. and Canada to Save North Atlantic Right Whales from Extinction
Oceana, the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation, today launched a campaign in the U.S. and Canada to help save the North Atlantic right whale... Read More
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Modernized Fisheries Act a historic victory for fisheries rebuilding and sharks
Today, a modernized Fisheries Act became law, setting the stage for rebuilding fish abundance in Canada’s oceans. For the first time since its inception in 1868, rebuilding plans... Read More
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Oceana Endorses Protecting 30 Percent of the World’s Seas and Land by 2030
, [May, 2019], Cambridge, UK: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN Available at: www.protectedplanet.net.
(2) UNEP-WCMC, IUCN and NGS (2019). Protected Planet Live Report 2019. UNEP-WCMC, IUCN and NGS: Cambridge UK; Gland, Switzerland; and Washington, D.C., USA. https://livereport.protectedplanet.net/chapter-2
(4) Friedlander et al. 2016. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0145059
Monday, May 20, 2019
Nicholas Davis Joins Oceana’s International Board of Directors
Oceana, the largest international advocacy organization focused solely on ocean conservation, announced that Nicholas Davis, a prominent Chilean businessman and conservationist, has joined its Board of Directors.Davis currently... Read More
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Trump Administration Delays Offshore Drilling Plan
Today, the Trump administration signaled a delay in its plan to radically expand offshore drilling to nearly all U.S. waters. In what was first reported by The Wall Street... Read More
Thursday, March 28, 2019
CAP puts an end to years of marine pollution: disposal of tailings into the sea is terminated
accountable for damages”, said Javiera Calisto, Marine Pollution Campaign Director at Oceana. “This is an iconic step for ocean protection. There are about 2,500 industrial mining centers around the world that dispose of tailings in tailing dams located on land. CAP will shut down one of 18 marine disposal systems for tailings and the only one operating in Chile”, she added.
In January 2018, SMA brought 20 charges against CAP for violating environmental regulations; the most serious one was the disposal of tailings into the sea at a time when the company did not even have environmental permits for their disposal on land. The company started this practice in 1978, and since then has operated on sectorial permits, but in 2010, when General Law 19.300 on the Environment was already enforced, CAP was required to submit a definitive land disposal system to be assessed and obtain the respective environmental qualification, which never happened.
“Further studies are required to determine the real effects caused by CAP at Ensenada Chapaco. The Superintendence can only supervise and penalize violations that have not prescribed. Therefore, the effects caused and described in the compliance plan reflect a limited period of time”, said Calisto. “There are studies provided by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture that determine that CAP tailings quickly release ore and other trace elements such as manganese, copper, arsenic, vanadium and gallium. In addition, it is concluded that further studies are necessary to be able to assess the real scope of potential impacts of tailings in the sea”, she added.
Disposal of tailings at sea is banned in countries such as Denmark, England, Greece, France, Australia, Canada, United States, Brazil, Russia and China, and is only allowed in states such as Papua New Guinea, Norway and Indonesia.
In Chile, even though legislation only allows tailings to be discarded in land dams, there currently is no regulation that expressly bans this practice at sea. Therefore, Oceana presented a bill in 2015, endorsed by five senators from different parties, to legally ban the disposal of mining waste at sea and prevent other mining companies in the future from engaging in this activity, which damages marine ecosystems.
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