WWF to push for protection of the Ross Sea
01 Mar 2007
The Ross Sea near Antarctica should be declared a Marine Protected Area (MPA) to help protect it from unsustainable fishing, marine pollution, climate change and the spread of invasive plants and animals, says WWF at the start of the 2007-2008 International Polar Year.
The conservation organisation today launched a global campaign to create a network of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean by 2012 in the face of increasing threats to fragile Antarctic marine habitats.
Following two recent shipping incidents in Antarctic waters, one of which resulted in an oil spill in the pristine waters off Deception Island, WWF will take its campaign for better protection of the Southern Ocean to the next Antarctic Treaty Consultative meeting to be held from April 30 to May 11 in New Delhi, India.
The first International Polar Year was held from 1882 to 1883 to promote coordinated international scientific research and exploration of the Arctic and the Antarctic. Since then there have been three International Polar Years held to further understanding of these unique environments.
The third and most recent polar year, held from 1957 to 1958, resulted in the ratification of the Antarctic Treaty in 1961. But fifty years on, Antarctic and Southern Ocean habitats and wildlife are more threatened than ever before. WWF has identified a number of threats, including:
Climate change: Widespread melting of Antarctic glaciers is already being observed. Rising sea temperatures are associated with the decline of the rockhopper penguin on Campbell Island, which has declined 94% from 1.6 million 40 years ago to just 103,000 today. Stocks of krill have declined by as much as 80% since the 1970s, which is likely to be due to a fall in the amount of sea ice, particularly around the Antarctic Peninsula.
Invasive species: Rats and mice prey on the eggs and chicks of seabirds and are likely to result in the extinction of many albatross species on Antarctic islands unless they are controlled. The North Atlantic spider crab is suspected to have established itself in Antarctic waters raising fears that with increased human traffic in the area, others invasive species might follow. WWF has already committed $100,000 towards a feral pest eradication program on Australia's sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.
Pirate fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) and marine by-catch: IUU fishing operators continue to plunder valuable and threatened fish stocks and kill tens of thousands of seabirds each year. An additional 6000 to 9000 Southern Ocean albatross and petrels are killed by the Japanese longline fisheries targeting southern blue-fin tuna each year in waters adjacent to the Southern Ocean. While in the Southern Ocean itself, over 300 birds a day are estimated to be caught by longlines and trawls.
Marine pollution from shipping: In the past few weeks, two incidents have served to demonstrate the vulnerability of the Southern Ocean to shipping activity. First the M/S Nordkapp, a Norwegian cruise ship ran aground and released a small volume of oil off Deception Island. Then the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru caught fire and was disabled and adrift in the Ross Sea.
"The Ross Sea is a physically and ecologically unique part of the Southern Ocean and home to many species including the world's largest invertebrate - the 450 kilogram colossal squid. An ecologically coherent network of protected areas in the Southern Ocean will protect habitats and wildlife, increase the ocean's resilience to climate change by lowering stress on the system, and enhance fisheries management by protecting spawning and nursery areas and providing refuges for exploited species," said the new leader of WWF's Antarctic and Southern Oceans Programme, Constance Johnson.
"Whether the biodiversity of the Antarctic continent and Southern Ocean survives increasing levels of exploitation and the impacts of climate change can be determined by action taken in International Polar Year," Ms Johnson said.
For more information
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Email: cstevens@wwf.org.au
Constance Johnson, Leader WWF Antarctica and Southern Oceans Programme
Mobile: 0421 328 448
Notes to the editor
- The Antarctic Treaty was signed in Washington on December 1, 1959 by the twelve countries whose scientists had been active in and around Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58, which was also the third International Polar Year. The Treaty came into effect on June 23 1961 and now has 46 parties in total. These are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea DPRK, Korea ROK, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Venezuela.
- The next Antarctic Treaty Consultative meeting will be held this year from April 30 to May 11 in New Delhi, India.
- International Polar Year (IPY) is a worldwide scientific program focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009. IPY is organised through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
- This IPY is the fourth polar year, following those in 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, IPY 2007-8 covers two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009 and will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics. The projects will give top priority to studying climate change.
- Over the two last decades, Alaska, Siberia and parts of the Antarctic Peninsula have been the three fastest-warming regions on the planet, scientists have found. In January, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the top scientific forum on global warming, warned sea ice would shrink in both poles by the end of the century.
- The Ross Sea continental shelf is physically and ecologically a unique region of the Antarctic. The food web appears to be substantially different from most other areas of the Southern Ocean. The climate of the Ross Sea is changing, although not necessarily in the same manner as areas like the West Antarctic Peninsula. The potential impact of these changes is poorly known, but should the trend continue, significant changes to the ecology of the Ross Sea can be expected.
- The Ross Sea was the site of the recent capture of a specimen of the colossal squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the world's largest living invertebrate. The spectacular specimen is nearly 10 metres long and is believed to weigh around half a tonne or 450 kilograms.
- In September 2006, 23 scientists from six countries attended an Experts Workshop on Bioregionalisation of the Southern Ocean held in Hobart, Australia. The workshop was hosted by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, and WWF-Australia, and sponsored by Antarctic expedition cruise operator, Peregrine Adventures. The workshop was designed to assist with the development of methods that might be used to partition the Southern Ocean for the purposes of large-scale ecological modelling, ecosystem-based management, and consideration of marine protected areas.
