Russia and Norway: You’ve 'saved' the Arctic, now it’s time to protect the Antarctic

An official statement released on January 23rd by Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries, announced that “Russia and Norway will sign a declaration on preventing unregulated fishing in the Arctic Ocean, helping to conserve the Arctic”.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation & Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, Ilya Shestakov was quoted saying that:

“Creating an effective mechanism to regulate fishing in the region is an urgent task, because the Arctic is the last major region in respect of which have not yet developed international agreements in the field of fisheries.”

“Last major region” is an interesting choice of words - at the other end of Planet Earth is another “major region” which has a developed set of international agreements, but as of yet, not protection: the Southern Ocean, surrounding Antarctica. Just this week, Interpol has issued three “purplenotices” against illegal fishing vessels operating in the Southern Ocean, while both the New Zealand Navy and activist group Sea Shepherd have had separate runs with the pirate fishing boats. 

While commending both Russia and Norway for their Arctic cooperation during a difficult period for international diplomacy, and agreeing that the protection Arctic marine biodiversity is of utmost importance, we here at the Antarctic & Southern Ocean Coalition think it's time to remind Minister Shestakov and his Norwegian colleague, Leydulvom Namtvedtom, that both nations also have a responsibility to ensure creation of marine protected areas in the Antarctic. We note that while history was made over the weekend at a UN meeting, with countries agreeing to create a global treaty for protection of world's oceans, Russia was one of the countries reluctant to commit. 

For several years, two comprehensive plans for widespread protection of the Antarctic marine ecosystem, across the Ross Sea and East Antarctica have been on the table at meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). While most strong Antarctic nations are backing the protection urgently needed for this important ecosystem, home to penguins, whales, seals, and other incredible creatures, at four consecutive meetings, Russia has blocked adoption of the proposals, which, if agreed, would create the largest marine reserves on Earth.

Yet, in October 2014, journalist Alice Lagnado wrote in an article about the CCAMLR deadlock:

“The Russian source close to the government said: ‘Russians want an overall solution to the governance of the Antarctic and the Arctic regions. That’s the problem, not the issue of individual marine sanctuaries. So Russia would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie, and let this simmer quietly for now.’”

If this statement by Russia means that it truly has no problem with individual marine sanctuaries, why not sign up for them, as a piece in the puzzle of Antarctic governance?

Governance of the Antarctic continent was solved with the 1959 signing of the Antarctic Treaty signing by Russia and eleven other nations - including Norway. Now it’s time to sign up an international agreement with 23 other countries (also including Norway) and the EU.

With the 200th anniversary of Captain Bellinghausen’s historic 1819 Antarctic expedition approaching, President Putin and Minister Shestakov have an opportunity to make history by putting signing up to Antarctic marine protection. What do they have to lose?

Meanwhile, Norway has a strong role to take on Antarctic issues. With a great Antarctic history stretching back to Amundsen’s reaching of the South Pole in 1911, Norway also has a foot in both polar regions. In February of this year, King Harald of Norway will visit Antarctica, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Norwegian Scientific Research base Troll. En route to Troll, the King and his delegation will fly over the wild waters of the Southern Ocean. While a strong player at CCAMLR, Norway must take a stronger stand on the conservation of these waters - and Foreign Minister Børge Brende must convince his Russian counterparts to echo their joint exploits in the Arctic by agreeing to the creation of permanent marine protected areas in the Ross Sea and East Antarctic.

So, Russia and Norway. You’ve prevented unregulated fishing in the Arctic Ocean. Will you do the same for Antarctic waters?

Dave Walsh, Communications Director, Antarctic & Southern Ocean Coalition

Sign the petition with 300,000 others to protect the Antarctic Ocean

"Does anyone wish to address the comma?"

ASOC just returned from the two-week long Antarctic Treaty meeting in Punta del Este, Uruguay. The results of the meeting from our perspective were mixed. On a positive note, Parties affirmed the importance of climate change to the Antarctic by agreeing to make climate change a major agenda item, and expressed support for the planned network of Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean. However, they failed to make much progress on regulating bioprospecting and tourism or working with the IMO to develop a Polar Code. You can read all about it in our press release.

However, the lack of progress across the board is not really surprising to anyone who attended the meeting. All too often the only issues Parties seem capable of discussing and subsequently agreeing on (many issues come up but little concrete action is taken) are the minor grammatical ones as referenced in the title of this post, which is an actual quote from the meeting. Of course some issues are going to be contentious, and I don't expect Parties to swoop in and take care of all issues within a few days, but it seems that there is a disappointing lack of enthusiasm for difficult work. Ignoring problems won't make them go away.

New research demonstrates that MPAs work

A special issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences features the latest research on the impacts of marine reserves. Surprise, it turns out that networks of marine reserves can boost conservation efforts and improve fishery profitability. Thanks to the awesome open-access policy of the NAS, you can read the articles here. One of the points stressed by the researchers is that networks designed based on science are absolutely key. Given that the process of designating these areas can get very politicized, I hope that as more marine reserves are created in the Southern Ocean, CCAMLR parties take heed of this research to ensure that they are creating reserves that make sense ecologically. Doing so requires solid scientific information and thus an investment in research, but will pay off in the long run.

End of the Line

I've been reading The End of the Line by Charles Clover, about the problem of overfishing. It was made into a movie last year. It's nothing many of us who work on ocean issues don't know already; nevertheless, it provides some information I had never heard before (especially information about historical fish catches), and provides a useful overview of the state of the world's oceans and how they got that way. Highly recommended. There is a great collection of videos related to the movie up at Babelgum, like this one about MPAs. Since Netflix doesn't have the DVD of the documentary yet, you can check these out in the meantime!

The Underwater Channel

Just found out about a cool new website that has lots of interesting videos about a variety of ocean-related topics, from conservation to treasure. It's called The Underwater Channel, and you can check it out here: http://www.theunderwaterchannel.tv/

There's a really great video from the really great Sylvia Earle about her letters to the world's leaders about the need for Marine Protected Areas. As Sylvia says, "No blue, no green."

On that note, there are a few days left for the public to comment on the Obama Administration's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Draft Report, which emphasizes marine spatial planning. Let them know how important it is for the U.S. to establish MPAs close to home, and in areas like the Antarctic that are outside EEZs.

Greenpeace's Marine Reserves Video

This video from Greenpeace makes the case for marine reserves in an offbeat way.

I for one look forward to eating tasty tasty jellyfish. My jaw muscles need bulking up.

Congratulations South Africa!

South Africa took a big step forward this week by proposing the creation of a huge marine protected area (MPA) around the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands, which are home to large populations of whales, seals, penguins, and albatrosses. While the MPA hasn't been created yet, South Africa has started the process of creating the reserve, and is well on its way thanks to the efforts of the WWF in developing a plan for the MPA. When created, the Prince Edward Islands MPA will be the sixth largest MPA in the world - 180,000 square kilometers - and the largest in the Antarctic region. Impressive!

South Africa has set an excellent example for the rest of the world. Many countries agreed to create a network of representative MPAs around the world by 2012, but very little progress has been made towards this goal. It's time for everyone else to step up, before it's too late for our oceans.

Antarctic Treaty Meeting Results

After two weeks of daylong meetings, numerous coffee breaks, and at times lively discussion, the Antarctic Treaty Parties managed to agree upon some long overdue measures on tourism, and made progress on marine protected areas (MPAs).

The tourism measure adopted by the Parties makes legally binding some previously only recommended restrictions, including not allowing ships carrying more than 500 passengers to land, and limiting the number of passengers from a ship that does land to 100. Now Parties will have to enact legislation on the national level to implement these new regulations, but getting all of them to agree to the Resolution was a promising first step.

The Parties also agreed to work more closely with CCAMLR (Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) to establish a network of MPAs.

Unfortunately, despite the climate change-focused opening of the meeting, the Parties failed to take much concrete action on climate change and were unable to agree on language for the Final Report that would have stressed the importance of a climate deal at the upcoming meetings in Copenhagen.

Given the number of different nations who all have to agree for anything to happen in the Antarctic Treaty System, though, I suppose we should just be grateful that any progress was made.