World's largest marine protected area declared in Antarctica

[jpak]

Source: BBC

Some 1.57 million sq km (600,000 sq miles) of the Southern Ocean will gain protection from fishing for 35 years.

Environmentalists have welcomed the move to protect what's said to be the Earth's most pristine marine ecosystem.

They believe it will be first of many such zones in international waters.

At this meeting in Hobart, Australia, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) agreed unanimously to designate the Ross Sea as an MPA, after years of protracted negotiations, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced.

<more>

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37789594

---

The Ross Sea is a bizarre place.

In the Antarctic spring, the ice-free Ross Sea Polynya forms.

I watched it transform from a tiny patch of ice-free water against the Ross Ice Shelf, to a huge area of ice and berg-free water in a matter of days.

You have to sail north to hit sea ice - and it is seabird, seal and penguin sparse.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This decision is needed now. Thanks for the good news. Surely hope it brings relief. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Rival Nations Just Created The World’s Largest Protected Marine Area

Rival Nations Just Created The World’s Largest Protected Marine Area

The Antarctic reserve protects a vast swath of unspoiled wilderness.

 10/27/2016 11:42 pm ET | Updated 3 hours ago

Nick Visser 
Reporter, The Huffington Post


A massive new marine reserve was created around Antarctica on Friday that will protect some 600,000 square miles of ocean in one of the world’s last vestiges of unspoiled wilderness. The new park, stretching throughout the Ross Sea, becomes the world’s largest protected marine area.

A bloc of 24 nations and the European Union, tasked with Antarctic conservation, announced the decision in Hobart, Australia, following two weeks of negotiations. The reserve will be protected for 35 years.

“The Ross Sea Region (Marine Protected Area) will safeguard one of the last unspoiled ocean wilderness areas on the planet ― home to unparalleled marine biodiversity and thriving communities of penguins, seals, whales, seabirds, and fish,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. He called the protection “proof that the world is finally beginning to understand the urgency of the threats facing our planet.”

New statutes will ban fishing in 425,000 square miles of the Ross Sea, according to Reuters, and the remaining territory will be used as a research area with only a small amount of fishing allowed for scientific purposes. Commercial fishing will still be allowed in the Ross Sea outside of the reserve’s boundaries, further from critical breeding and feeding areas, The New York Times reports.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/antarctica-marine-protected-area_us_5812b90ce4b0990edc303fbd?section=us_world