An international panel for conserving Antarctica’s ocean ecosystems failed once again to break a deadlock over creating more marine protected areas.
The third special session in its four-decade history "focused exclusively on the issue of marine protected areas," the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources said Saturday.
But the CCAMLR, hosted by Chile's Acting Foreign Minister Gloria de la Fuente, could not agree on proposals to expand protections in the waters around Antarctica, where sea ice is at record lows.
"We have spent years without making any substantial progress in this area, and it is time to leave this immobility behind," she said.
Comprised of 26 nations and the European Union, CCAMLR is a consensus-based organization that works to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
It also helps in reducing the incidental mortality of seabirds and in "respecting the criteria of rational use of Antarctic marine living resources," according to Chile's foreign ministry.
Elizabeth Phelps, an American diplomat who serves as the U.S. commissioner for CCAMLR, said most of the panel was on "common ground" about what to do.
"We are deeply disappointed that we have not made progress on establishing a representative system of MPAs at this special meeting, such as by development of a roadmap that would lead to the designation of marine protected areas," she said.
The deadlock threatens "the long-term ecological viability of Antarctic marine ecosystems and protection of Antarctic marine biodiversity," Phelps said. "There are no winners when we fail. In fact, the real loser is Antarctic marine living resources."
'Adaptive and resilient spaces' needed
The panel, which is chaired by Ukrainian diplomat Vitalii Tsymbaliuk, who took over the panel last November, has the authority to designated marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean.
But for more than half a decade, China and Russia have stymied the 27-member panel's majority, arguing that fishing must be balanced with protections.
The Australian-based CCAMLR was set up in 1982 under the CAMLR Convention, which is part of the Antarctic Treaty system for protecting Antarctica’s marine life and sustainably managing its fisheries, particularly krill, a vital food source.
Only twice before has the panel created two marine protected areas in the South Orkney Islands southern shelf in 2009 and in the Ross Sea region in 2016.
A third East Antarctica proposal has the backing of the panel's majority but would hamper China's strong market for krill. Russia also opposes catch limits for Patagonian toothfish, marketed as Chilean seabass, near the South Georgia islands.
"Science has shown us that, in order to effectively protect Antarctica, we need to take additional steps," said de la Fuente. "It is imperative to create adaptive and resilient spaces for ecosystems, processes, habitats, and species in order to increase their chances of adapting and responding positively to climate change."
'Something must change'
Scientific studies show an increasingly urgent need to protect the Southern Ocean, yet for the seventh time in a row the panel could not reach agreement.
"Unfortunately, this special meeting ended as the previous six annual meetings have: with two countries blocking the will of the other 25 CCAMLR members to make progress toward a network of Southern Ocean MPAs,” said Andrea Kavanagh of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy project.
"“Those 25 members repeatedly work to deliver on CCAMLR’s mandate to conserve Antarctic marine life, using a precautionary approach and the best available science," she said. "The other two repeatedly derail the process by demanding more data to protect the ocean than to exploit it.”
Over the past two years CCAMLR passed 66 measures allowing fishing in the region to continue as usual but failed to adopt any new measures on the conservation of marine ecosystems, according to Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.
Environmental campaigners say they are now turning their attention to the panel's next annual meeting in October at its headquarters in Hobart, Australia.
“The commission’s system of consensus decision making is fundamentally broken," said Chris Thorne of Greenpeace’s Protect the Oceans campaign. "Something must change for the commission to fulfill its responsibility of protecting the Antarctic ocean.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
