“While it is encouraging that China has endorsed a revision of the marine reserve in the Ross Sea, it is troubling that the Chinese derailed many other important measures by prioritizing fishing over advancing science-based conservation, which is the heart of the CCAMLR charter”.
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The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting closed Friday with no agreement on the two proposed areas, created to protect species including whales and penguins.
Both the Ross Sea proposal and an Australia-backed East Antarctic protected zone have been blocked four times so far at the annual CCAMLR meets, which require consensus from all 24 members countries and the European Union to progress.
The Ross Sea is an important commercial fishing ground for the Antarctic toothfish and Russian Federation is concerned about the impact protecting it would have on its fishery.
“China’s support for a revised MPA is a major step forward in reaching the consensus required to put workable protections in place for the Ross Sea”, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in a statement.
Mr McCully said he also welcomed Russia’s statement that it is open to working with members on the protected area ahead of the next year’s meeting.
The USA and New Zealand-backed Ross Sea proposal was this year enlarged to more than 1.5 million square kilometres (600,000 square miles) but with the overall no fishing zone slightly diminished, though still covering about 1.1 million square kilometres.
The plan for “The Last Ocean” has since been scaled back to 1.25 million square kilometres with 1.14 million square kilometres proposed as a “no take” zone.
When asked if New Zealand was compromising by agreeing to the revised proposal, she said it retained its core conservation objectives and had reached a “really substantial breakthrough”.
The Ross Sea is known as the “Last Ocean” because it is the only intact marine ecosystem on earth, mostly untouched by pollution, overfishing, and invasive species.
CCAMLR is a treaty-based group tasked with overseeing conservation and sustainable exploitation of the Antarctic Ocean with talks to continue until later today.
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The commitment to establish MPA was still very strong, she said.
