"Members of the multilateral body responsible for Antarctic marine conservation failed to agree on new measures to protect the Southern Ocean from overfishing.
China and Russia blocked all proposals to establish new marine protected areas.
For the fifth year in a row, a council of nations involved in Antarctic fishing operations have failed to agree on new conservation measures which experts had hoped would protect the Southern Ocean from overfishing, particularly of the keystone krill species.
Members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the body responsible for Antarctic marine conservation, were not able to agree on new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Weddell Sea, the Antarctic Peninsula and in East Antarctica, the latter of which was first proposed in 2011. ...
The annual meetings, which normally take place in Hobart, Australia, were held online for the second year in a row due to COVID-19 restrictions. In its 40th year, CCAMLR’s 26 members — 25 countries and the EU — met to convene on matters related to the management and protection of the Southern Ocean."
Richa Syal reports for the Environmental Reporting Collective and Mongabay November 15, 2021.
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