Russia Leads Blockade Halting Protection of Antarctic Seas

An international group representing the interests of 24 nations and the European Union once again failed to reach an agreement to designate huge swaths of open water around Antarctica as protected areas, with Russia leading the blockade.

The annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation on Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) ended Friday in Hobart, Australia, after 10 days and no resolution on an attempt to designate the Ross Sea and seas of East Antarctica as official marine protected areas (MPAs) around Antarctica.

The successful creation of the MPAs would have solidified the creation of the two largest marine reserves in the Antarctic.

One of the MPAs, proposed by the US and New Zealand, aims to create a 1.3 million square kilometer protected area in the Ross Sea; another, put forth by the EU, France and Australia, would have kept fishermen out of a cluster of seven protested areas, amounting to 1.6 million square kilometers of water around East Antarctica.

The 10-day-long meeting was the third attempt since 2012 to get the Antarctic waters protected.

Keeping in line with similar moves in the past, Russia, China and Ukraine elected not to back the MPAs, the Guardian reported, quoting Andrea Kavanagh, the director of The Pew Charitable Trusts' Southern Ocean sanctuaries project:

"Russia and Ukraine filibustered until the end. They wanted to open up more areas for fishing and set a time limit of 10 years. Given that it has taken that amount of time to draw up the protected zones, we would've spent more time planning this than protecting it, which is ridiculous," she said. "I think conservation-minded countries need to take a stand and tell Russia this is unacceptable. There's no reason why fishing nations such as Australia can put up protected zones only for other fishing nations to block them."

In July Russia blocked the establishment of Antarctic MPAs at a special session of CCAMLR in Germany. 

A unanimous consensus of delegation members is required before the protected areas can be made official.

"The international community came together in Hobart to protect key parts of the Antarctic Ocean -- one of the last pristine environments in the world -- yet Russia chose to stand in the way," said Joshua Reichert, executive vice president of The Pew Charitable Trusts, an organization championing the protection of the Antarctic waters.

Bob Zuur, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, expressed frustration at the outcome and called it a step backwards.

"I sailed through the Ross Sea last year and saw dozens of whales, hundreds of seals and albatrosses, and thousands of penguins," he said. "The Ross Sea and East Antarctica are two of the Earth's truly special places, largely untouched by humans.

"Lasting protection for these conservation values should be obvious. Yet the focus was on protecting fishing interests. The conservation principles enshrined in the CCAMLR convention will be questioned following this failure to reach agreement."

The proposals will be reconsidered at CCAMLR's next meeting in October of 2014.