Sunset over the Ross Sea, AntarcticaWIKIMEDIA, NOAARussian diplomats have this week angered conservation organizations around the world by invoking a legal technicality to foil grand plans to protect vast swathes of the Antarctic Ocean, reported Nature.
With Antarctic marine ecosystems under increasing pressure from fishing and other human activities, several governments, backed by scientists and non-governmental organizations, proposed the creation of new marine reserves. One proposal involved banning fishing in an area covering 1.6 million square kilometers of the Ross Sea to create the world’s largest marine reserve, while the other would have created seven new reserves off Antarctica’s east coast.
The plans were up for consideration at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation on Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)—which controls fishing in Antarctica—held this week in Bremerhaven, Germany. All 25 members of the commission had previously agreed in principle to the plans, so there was widespread hope that the reserves would be approved.
But those hopes were dashed when ...
