Brooks finds Antarctic species threatened by willful misinterpretation of legal treaty
Countries are loosely interpreting the legal meaning of “rational use” of natural resources to escalate fishing efforts in Antarctic waters and hinder efforts to establish marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean, scientists and legal scholars say.
The findings, published online in the journal Marine Policy, come as 24 countries plus the European Union convene in Hobart, Australia, this week for the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to set fisheries management rules in the Southern Ocean.
Also on the meeting agenda are plans for extensive marine protected areas (MPAs), including the Ross Sea, Antarctica, a region scientists have deemed Earth’s “Last Ocean” because it is perhaps the healthiest large intact marine ecosystem left on the planet.
“Largely protected by an icy shield and sheer remoteness, the southernmost waters around Antarctica are the least affected by people. They also contain some of our last pockets of untapped fish stocks,” said co-author Cassandra Brooks, a PhD candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.
Additional Resources
Conservation: It is rational to protect Antarctica, Nature journal letter (subscription required)
