During the preparatory meeting for June’s UN Oceans Conference to discuss implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14: “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development”), WCS, IUCN and the Government of France hosted a side event to raise awareness among UN member states and other stakeholders about global shipping and impacts on whales from noise and ship strikes. The event’s specific focus was reviewing the current state of knowledge regarding the issues of ship strikes and ocean noise, as well as the best practices in aligning shipping and whale conservation objectives. Beyond raising awareness in the lead-up to the June 2017 UN Oceans Conference, the specific goal of this event was to bring together key stakeholders to explore actions that could align conservation, industry, regulatory, and UN member states’ perspectives toward the Call for Action being developed for adoption during the Conference in June 2017. Click here to read more.