Russia and China have again blocked plans supported by New Zealand, the European Union, the United States and 22 other nations to protect three vast stretches of the ocean around Antarctica from most fishing.
However, environmentalists claimed that a two-week international conference on the fate of Antarctica’s pristine seas that ended in Australia late Friday had some encouraging outcomes.
Those included an agreement on new protections for krill fishing and a commitment to meet in Chile next year to further discuss the proposal for the new marine protected areas, which combined would cover a swath of ocean larger than India.
Many countries have grown dissatisfied with Russia’s – and, to a lesser extent, China’s – capacity to essentially veto suggestions because the group’s rules call for it to come to an agreement before acting.
The US, which has been attempting to reach an understanding with China, put the entire blame for this year’s disputes on Russia, which it claimed was undermining the group.
The State Department stated in a statement that “Russia’s repeated rejection of the greatest scientific knowledge currently available amounts to an abuse of its responsibility to engage in consensus-based decision-making.”
The Russian delegation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project said it was pleased the group had managed to agree on some measures around krill fishing. Whales, seals, penguins, and seagulls all devour the tiny, shrimp-like invertebrates.
The Project’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean work is directed by Andrea Kavanagh. “While the krill conservation measure is a good first step, new evidence underscores that the best precautionary approach to Southern Ocean conservation couples ecosystem-based fishery management and marine protected areas,” she said.
It has never been easy for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to come to agreements, but the conflict in Ukraine, where Russia is also a member, has made it even more difficult. Last week, as the Russian delegates started speaking, there was a large-scale walkout of the gathering.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Kostiantyn Demianenko, declared last week that Russia had no business sitting at the table.
“A state that kills the civilian population, destroys the air and ground civilian infrastructure of another country and defiantly violates the basic provisions of international law should definitely be limited in its right to participate in the activities of international organizations such as CCAMLR,” he wrote in an email.
The announcement comes less than a week after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern travelled to the freezing continent to commemorate Scott Base’s 65th anniversary.
Plans for Antarctic marine safeguards are blocked by Russia and China.
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