"On Nov. 4, the 41st annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) closed without making significant progress toward the establishment of new marine protected areas (MPAs) and fishery regulations. The scientific community and most delegates to the meeting had urged the adoption of new protections for Southern Ocean ecosystems to buffer damage from climate change and fishing.
For the sixth year in a row, China and Russia vetoed three proposals to establish new MPAs, the most anticipated discussion at the meeting, and blocked a number of other conservation-related measures.
“China and Russia have a different view than the rest of the membership,” Orazio Guanciale, CCAMLR commissioner for Italy, told Mongabay by email. “In the Antarctic Treaty system there is a rigorous application of the consensus principle. If one disagrees, nothing is decided, you have to get over it.”
The 2022 meeting also failed to adopt new conservation measures to better regulate fishing activities for krill (Euphausia superba) and toothfish (Chilean sea bass, Dissostichus mawsoni and D. eleginoides). However, the commission did recognize eight new vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) with high biological diversity which are now permanently protected from bottom fishing."
Francesco De Augustinis reports for Mongabay November 7, 2022.
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