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Motion 035: Protection of Mesopelagic Ecosystem Integrity goes to vote at the World Conservation Congress this October. It urges nations not to authorize commercial fishing or other harmful activities in the deep ocean until we understand it better. If passed, this motion would be a crucial step toward ensuring that life in the deep layers of the ocean continues to thrive, and human activity in this space proceeds only when proven to pose no harm.

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By Silvie Alexander, Kristin Kleisner, Dr. Lance Morgan, Chris Dorsett and Kristina Gjerde.

Beneath the waves, between 200 and 1,000 meters deep, lies one of Earth’s most mysterious and vital ecosystems: the mesopelagic zone, also known as the Ocean Twilight Zone. Though shrouded in darkness, this vast layer spans the globe and harbors an estimated 90% of all fish biomass, making it the largest unexploited ecosystem on the planet.

Until recently, this deep sea zone remained largely unknown. But as scientific discovery begins shedding light on the mesopelagic’s immense ecological and climate value, a new threat is rising: industrial exploitation. 

Fishing fleets are eyeing this zone for extraction as demand for fishmeal and fish oil increases. Other potential activities like deep-sea mining and marine carbon dioxide removal technologies also threaten the integrity of the mesopelagic ecosystem and its services. 

If we are serious about fighting climate change and preserving ocean health, the world must act now to protect this fragile, extraordinary ecosystem before it is too late. An upcoming vote at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Conservation Congress is the first step. 

Lungs of the Ocean

Though invisible from the surface, the mesopelagic zone isn’t lifeless. It is teeming with bioluminescent fish, jellyfish, and otherworldly creatures, many of which remain unnamed, unstudied, or entirely undiscovered. But what makes this region truly exceptional is the essential role it plays in regulating our climate.

Each night, billions of mesopelagic organisms perform the largest animal migration on Earth: migrating to the surface to feed on carbon-rich plankton, then returning to the depths by day. This nightly movement pulls massive amounts of carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean, where it can be sequestered for hundreds to thousands of years.

It is estimated that mesopelagic species help transport 2-6 gigatons of carbon every year, more than double the annual emissions from all the world’s cars. And that is a conservative range based on our limited knowledge of the region’s biomass. Some scientists estimate migrating mesopelagic organisms facilitate the sequestration of over half the carbon stored by the ocean’s biologic carbon pump, with others positing they are responsible for up to 90% of deep ocean carbon storage. 

As science deepens its understanding of the mesopelagic zone and its species, it is increasingly evident that it is one of the planet’s most powerful climate stabilizers. Without it, Earth could be significantly hotter and climate impacts far more extreme. 

In addition to carbon transport, mesopelagic organisms form the foundation of oceanic food webs, serving as vital prey for economically and culturally significant species such as tuna, swordfish, sharks, sperm whales, and sea lions. In other words, what happens in the mesopelagic zone ripples out across entire ocean ecosystems and affects the communities and industries that depend on them.

Moreover, it is clear a vast number of species have evolved to the unique attributes of this dynamic deep sea environment, yet scientists have only catalogued a fraction. Considering the contributions biodiversity makes to science and life saving medicines every year, this is an invaluable benefit that we cannot afford to lose.

A New Gold Rush in the Deep Sea

Despite its societal, ecological, and climate value, the mesopelagic zone is now in the crosshairs of industrial-scale exploitation. Fishing companies are exploring it as a new source of fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO), used in aquaculture, livestock, and even pet food.

Currently, about 30% of global wild-caught fish are ground into FMFO. But as fisheries falter under climate stress and overfishing, attention is shifting to deeper, more abundant mesopelagic species. For industry, it is a business opportunity. For the planet, it is a dangerous gamble. 

We Have More to Learn – And We Must Learn Fast

It is worth emphasizing that we know shockingly little about the mesopelagic zone. We do not know how many species live there, how long they live, how they reproduce, or how resilient they are to disturbance. We do not know how fast these ecosystems recover from disruption, or if they can recover at all.

Unlike more familiar fisheries, there is no baseline data, no harvest limits, and no management frameworks. It is, quite literally, a scientific black box. While there may be some level of extraction that is sustainable, we do not know what these levels may be or how economic gains weigh against the damage exploitation could cause. There is research underway exploring this, but we need more before we alter this system. 

Ultimately, we cannot manage what we do not measure. Fishing before we have the necessary knowledge in hand is a reckless gamble we simply cannot afford. The stakes for ocean health, biodiversity, and the global climate are too high.

A Global Call to Action 

Recognizing this threat, the Marine Conservation Institute, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Ocean Conservancy are working to pass a motion at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that would place a precautionary pause on mesopelagic exploitation and spur the research needed to answer key questions.

Motion 035: Protection of Mesopelagic Ecosystem Integrity, goes to vote at the World Conservation Congress this October. It urges nations not to authorize commercial fishing or other harmful activities in the mesopelagic until we understand it better. If passed, this motion would be a crucial step toward ensuring the mesopelagic zone continues to thrive, and human activity in this space proceeds only when proven to pose no harm.

This is not about halting all human activity in the ocean – it is about acting responsibly, and understanding that the ocean, and particularly the mesopelagic zone, is more than a resource; it is a life-support system for us and our planet.

The mesopelagic zone is one of Earth’s last truly untouched frontiers. Once lost, we do not know what will happen and we have no guarantee we can restore it.

We have a narrow window of opportunity to make the right choice. The mesopelagic zone has served us and our planet silently for millennia. Now it is time we speak up for it.

What You Can Do

If you are an ocean advocate:

• Share the importance of Motion 035 and the mesopelagic zone.
• Amplify on social media and to your networks.
• Encourage IUCN members to vote “Yes.”

If you are an IUCN Member:

• Read, comment on, and vote in support of the motion.
• Urge others to protect this extraordinary and essential ecosystem.

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About the authors: Silvie Alexander (Blue Carbon Intern at Environmental Defense Fund), Kristin Kleisner (Lead Senior Scientist and AVP, Ocean Science at Environmental Defense Fund), Dr. Lance Morgan (marine biologist and president of Marine Conservation Institute), Chris Dorsett (Vice President, Conservation, Ocean Conservancy) and Kristina Gjerde (Senior High Seas Advisor to IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme).

Featured image: Paul Caiger, Nancy Copley, Larry Madin/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Cables have been stripped from an area near a major rail junction causing disruption for weekend passengers, a train operator said.

Greater Anglia said the theft between Shenfield and Brentwood, in Essex, resulted in a “loss of signalling” and the lines being blocked to London Liverpool Street on Saturday morning.

Network Rail and British Transport Police teams were sent to replace the cables in order to reopen the railway, with trains then resuming about lunch time.

A Greater Anglia spokesman said it was “sorry for the disruption” and affected passengers would be able to claim compensation for any delays.

The spokesperson added Saturday travel tickets could now be used on Sunday instead.

It was expected to take up to three hours before the train timetable was back to normal.

Greater Anglia said trains would be delayed, altered and cancelled in order to get crews and vehicles back into the correct places.

Signalling problems were first reported early on Saturday, before Greater Anglia later said the cable has been stolen.

Shenfield is a major junction for many services, including trains using the Great Eastern Main Line.

The blocked lines had prevented trains from running between Shenfield, Romford and London.

Passengers had also been unable to travel as normal on intercity trains between Norwich, Ipswich and London Liverpool Street.

Routes between Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester, Braintree Town and Southend Victoria to Liverpool Street were blocked too.

Passengers from Norwich were told to travel to London via Cambridge instead on GTR trains between Ely and London King’s Cross.

The incident also affected trains on the Elizabeth line between Stratford and Shenfield.

Greater Anglia, which runs trains across the East of England and into London, is to be brought into public ownership on Sunday.

By Gordon Gottsegen

If legacy financial institutions don’t embrace new technology, their competitors may leave them in the dust

New York Stock Exchange parent company Intercontinental Exchange announced a $2 billion investment into prediction-markets platform Polymarket.

This past week, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a $2 billion investment into prediction-markets platform Polymarket. On the same day, S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPGI), the company behind stock-market indexes like the S&P 500 SPX, announced a partnership with fintech company Dinari to create a crypto-focused index.

Although these are two different legacy financial institutions partnering with two different fintech companies, both announcements referenced one thing: tokenization.

Tokenization refers to the creation of a digital identifier for a real-world asset, which allows that asset to trade on a blockchain, like bitcoin (BTCUSD) does. For now, tokenization of the entire stock market is a far-off dream. But that doesn’t mean financial institutions aren’t thinking about it: Companies like Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) and Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) have both experimented with tokenizing stocks.

But when you think about the New York Stock Exchange, which was started in 1792, and Standard & Poor’s, which traces its history back to 1860, you may not think of two companies that like to move fast and break things.

So why are these two financial-industry behemoths moving in the same direction all of a sudden? The answer is two-fold. Firstly, they see it as an opportunity to bring in new sources of revenue. And secondly, if they don’t innovate, their competitors may leave them in the dust.

Racing to where the puck is going

In its partnership announcement, S&P Dow Jones Indices said that it plans to create the S&P Digital Markets 50. Similar to the S&P 500, the S&P Digital Markets 50 will be a market-tracking index that follows 15 of the largest cryptocurrencies and 35 U.S.-listed companies in the crypto space.

S&P said this new index reflects a growing demand for crypto.

“Cryptocurrencies and the broader digital-asset industry have moved from the margins into a more established role in global markets. Our expanded index suite offers market participants consistent, rules-based tools to evaluate and gain exposure to this segment,” Cameron Drinkwater, chief product and operations officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in the announcement.

That demand is also there for prediction markets. While the crypto industry may have had a head start on prediction markets, companies like Polymarket and Kalshi are growing rapidly – and now processing hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars in volume each month.

Also read: Here’s why Wall Street is betting against DraftKings and FanDuel – and going all in on Polymarket and Kalshi

“Polymarket knows where the puck is going,” Joe Saluzzi, head of equity trading at Themis Trading, told MarketWatch. “And where I think they’re going is something called tokenization.”

Saluzzi said that tokenization of all sorts of assets, including stocks, is something that many people in the financial system are talking about. While many are excited about it, he said, there’s also an undercurrent of competition.

In the movie “The Big Short,” there’s a scene where some of the main characters go to the S&P ratings agency and ask about how bonds get their AAA rating. When the woman at the agency reveals that all mortgage-backed bonds get AAA ratings, she blurts out that if she doesn’t give the banks the ratings they want, they’ll take their business elsewhere.

Although the movie is a Hollywood dramatization of what actually happened during the 2008 financial crisis, Saluzzi made an analogy to this scene and said it may be how financial institutions are now thinking. If they don’t move quickly to embrace crypto, tokenization and prediction markets, then their competitors will.

Financial incentives

Financial institutions don’t adopt new technology merely for the sake of innovation. They do it when there’s a business incentive.

For example, retail brokerage Robinhood makes money when its customers place trades. That tends to happen more when markets are up, noted Paul Rowady, director of research at Alphacution Research Conservatory, who tracks investor and market flows.

“When the market goes down, like it did in 2022, the client equity of Robinhood goes down in correlation with that. And I think that that’s true of all these guys,” Rowady told MarketWatch.

So what does Robinhood do to keep its customers active when market conditions aren’t favorable? They expand into new product verticals, like prediction markets.

“If the market goes down, the exchanges and Robinhood want their user base to be able to gamble on sports,” Rowady said. Getting into prediction markets is a way for these financial companies to hedge by diversifying their businesses.

Robinhood makes money on transaction-based revenue. For stock exchanges like Intercontinental Exchange, they make money providing financial data to institutional clients; that includes selling things like prop data, colocation fees and access to high-speed data ports.

As markets grow and see more volume, they also create more data. Prediction markets are still dwarfed by the stock market, but they’re growing rapidly. Thomas Peterffy, the founder and chair of Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (IBKR), said that he believes prediction markets will be larger than the stock market within the next 15 years. If that happens, stock exchanges may want to hedge their bets by looking into new markets.

Read: After a big 2024 election, why prediction markets could soon eclipse the stock market

But when S&P creates an index, the business incentive may be a little more simple.

“Create an index. Get paid,” Saluzzi said. “Somebody licenses it out, you can create an ETF based on your index, and the index companies just collect the toll.”

Saluzzi noted that it always comes back to financial institutions making sure they get paid. These are businesses, and they have to make money in order to continue operating. That doesn’t mean there’s some sort of malicious intent; crypto and prediction markets have grown organically based on retail-investor demand.

“In the end, it’s giving the people what they want. The retail [investors are] demanding this,” Saluzzi said.

When centuries-old financial institutions start moving quickly, it’s a sign that the demand is there.

-Gordon Gottsegen

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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