New York 6 Jun (ANA) - Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has opened the first-ever UN conference on oceans with a warning that the seas are "under threat as never before" with one recent study warning discarded plastic rubbish could outweigh fish by 2050 if nothing is done. The UN chief told presidents, ministers, diplomats and environmental activists from nearly 200 countries on Monday that oceans - "the lifeblood of our planet" - are being severely damaged by pollution, overfishing, and the effects of climate change as well as refuse. The five-day conference, which began on World Environment Day, is the first major event to focus on climate since President Donald Trump announced last Thursday that the United States will withdraw from the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Agreement - a decision criticised by Bolivia's President Evo Morales and other speakers. Guterres said the aim of the conference is "to turn the tide" and solve the problems that "we created". He said competing interests over territory and natural resources have blocked progress for far too long in cleaning up and restoring to health the world's oceans, which cover two-thirds of the planet. "We must put aside short-term national gain to prevent long-term global catastrophe," Guterres said. "Conserving our oceans and using them sustainably is preserving life itself." General Assembly President Peter Thomson, a Fijian diplomat, said: "the time has come for us to correct our wrongful ways". "We have unleashed a plague of plastic upon the ocean that is defiling nature in so many tragic ways," he said. "It is inexcusable that humanity tips the equivalent of a large garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute of every day." Thomson also warned that illegal and destructive fishing practices and harmful subsidies for fisheries "are driving our fish stocks to tipping points of collapse". And he said increasing human-caused carbon emissions are not only driving climate change but causing rising sea levels by warming the oceans and making them more acidic with less oxygen, which harms marine life.(ANA)

FA/ANA/6 June 2017-----