Whenever we think of water,wethinkof life that represents its superiority over other assets and force me to call all oceanic activities sea/blue gold. Sea and oceans are of great importance to the survival and welfare of mankind as they endure life, connect the entire globe via support to development.
According to Chinese president Xi Jinping, “The blue planet that humans inhabit is not divided into islands by the oceans, but is connected by the oceans to form a community with a shared future, where people of all countries share weal and woe” so, tranquility of the blue oceans are crucial for interests of all humanity but in the current phase of COVID-19 where no facet of world economy is immune to pandemic, it is believed that most of the obstructionsoccurred in the health,aviation,hospitality, sports and services sectors, but thearms of COVID-19 have also stretched out to impact the sea, and our”blueeconomy.”
Collectively, formal and informal marine jobs along with goods and servicesworthUS$2.5 trillion per year. If we consider ocean as a country, it willbe the seventh largest economy in the world. In someregions, shippingactivities after the outbreak of COVID-19 have been reduced by 30%.With the restrictions of social distancing and partial or complete lockdownsdemand for seafood have reduced fishing activities in China and West Africa by as much as 80%.
Allcountries thatrely on oceans for marine and coastal tourism have closed their borders. Globally, the impact of COVID-19 onthe tourismindustry maycause lossesup to 7.4 billion US$ and put almost 75 million jobs at risk. Pakistan’s neighboring nations like Bangladesh and India are generating enough revenues from their blue economy.
According to World bank Bangladesh’s revenue from sea is almost 6 billion US$ before covid while India gains 7 billion US$ from exploitation of sea resources so, there is no reason that Pakistan may utilize its blue economy even in the duration of global economic crisis as an alternate parallel economy to traditional one as out traditional economy is suffering from low productivity and limited export growth accompanied with limited profitable sectors so, there is a dire need to discover its untapped resource potential i.e. Blue Resources following green mode of activities.
So, part of the COVID-19 boosts bundles adopted by Government aims to regain land-basedbusinesses however, bluer methods of activity are rarely considered and awaits special attention.
It is recommended to the authorities to develop manoeuvre to explore the potential of our Blue Gold throughBluer Blue Tourism by convalescence funds to reestablish blue eco-system like coral reefs and mangroves given the huge rate of profitability that such ecosystems deliver to blue tourism, reducing shipping emissions as 90% of the world trade are transported by sea and IMO ordered to reduce the activities up to 50% in order to protect sea environment and to promote sustainable consumption, abstain from squandering a post-COVID-19 fish bounty, supporting our mariners and fishermen as they are the delivery drivers of blue growth and work under the most difficult environment, cultivating the sea to feed billion of people to attain the sustainable development goal of zero hunger, protecting Ocean Parks, digitalization of our Oceans through Maritime Technology Parks and through Blue R&D and innovation.
COVID-19 unveil the fact that, how closely our economicprosperityisconnected to the blue ocean. These measures instantiate the need to inoculatebluer to the COVID-19 discussion of “Green Bluerecovery” in order to have sustainable blue economy, we must not miss the opportunity to help humanity and the blue ocean. Let’s not repeat the mistake we made on earth so, its time follow shades of Blue…
