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Hundreds protest outside U.N. Ocean Conference

STORY: In the crowd attending the 'blue march', there were activists dressed up as mermaids and some were wearing shark suits to raise awareness of the threats faced by these ocean creatures.

"We are 75,000 years old, Australian Indigenous people, and the ocean is our mother and we love it," said activist Theresa Ardler, who travelled halfway around the world to tell leaders at the conference they are failing to protect her fishing community back home.

In the first row of the protest with others behind her who played drums and shouted "Keep it in the ground" Ardler held a sign asking authorities everywhere to halt their plans to mine the deep sea.

There is growing interest in deep-sea mining, which would involve using heavy machinery to suck up off the ocean floor potato-sized rocks or nodules that contain cobalt, manganese, and other rare metals mostly used in batteries.

At the protest, 38-year-old Laura Meller from Greenpeace also urged leaders to reach an agreement on the long-awaited treaty to shield open seas against exploitation beyond national jurisdictions.