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| Emperor penguins @ Cape Crozier |
The need for protecting the waters around the Antarctic is daily becoming more urgent as
fisheries around the world begin to collapse from over exploitation. A meeting in Bremerhaven last month of twenty-four nation and EU members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources failed to produce an agreement on two proposals to create marine sanctuaries there. Russia and Ukraine objected to the proposals. The United States with support from New Zealand proposed a 1.6 million square kilometer reserve for the Ross Sea were no fishing would be allowed
[map]. Australia and the European Union proposed seven marine reserves on the east Antarctic coast covering an additional 1.6 million square kilometers. Russia raised legal concerns over the authority of the Commission to create marine reserves. The Commission established its first marine protected area around the South Orkney Islands in 2009. The Commission is an intergovernmental organization established by treaty in 1982 and is part of the treaty system that has governed
international cooperation in the Antarctic for more than five decades.
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| courtesy: NOAA |
The proposed areas contain unique features such as underwater canyons and key species such as krill and silverfish that underpin the Antarctic's continental shelf ecosystem. More than 500 scientists worldwide
support protection of the Ross Sea.
[view photo gallery] The Sea was named "the least altered marine ecosystem on Earth" in a recent scientific study. It provides critical habitat for the Antarctic toothfish, highly sought by the commercial fishing industry and marketed in the US as "Chilean sea bass". Commercial fishing is already reducing the size of toothfish in the Sea according to a 2012 published study. The Commission operates by consensus and the Russian legal objections, thought to be actually concerned with curtailment of fishing rights, were enough to table the proposals until the next meeting in Hobart, Tasmania in October. The Australian delegation expressed optimism that progress was being made toward establishing the proposed reserves.
