Science Media Centre

The Antarctic Ross Sea will remain open to fishing in all areas following the failure of an international meeting to reach agreement on the establishment of Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean. After 11 days of intense talks, the meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Hobart, concluded [...]

Economist Gareth Morgan and his associate Geoff Simmons write about the pitfalls of campaigning for Marine Protected Areas in today’s New Zealand Herald. Dr Morgan recently returned from the Our Far South expedition, which aimed raise New Zealanders’ awareness of the importance of the Antarctica, the subantarctic islands and the Southern Ocean. An excerpt (read [...]

An alliance of major conservation and environmental groups is calling for the establishment of a series of marine reserves around Antarctica, with a particular focus on the Ross Sea. In a report released this week, the Antarctic Ocean Alliance identified 19 areas that should be included within a Southern Ocean network of Marine Protected Areas [...]

The Green party has called for the Ross Sea in Antarctica to become a marine protected area, in the wake of several fishing vessels running into strife in the region. Korean vessel Jung Woo 2 was evacuated on Wednesday in the Antarctic Ross Sea following a fire which broke out aboard ship. It has been [...]

An editorial in this week’s Waikato Times highlights the issue of commercial fisheries in the Antarctic. The topic was also raised last month,  when South African ecologist Professor Steven L  Chown gave a lecture in New Zealand arguing that our government should seek special marine protection status for the whole of the Ross Sea in [...]

Eloise Gibson of the New Zealand Herald reports that NZ scientists are urging New Zealand to forfeit a lucrative fishing haul, in  the interests of preserving what they say is the world’s last untouched ocean. The Ross Sea, which is still largely untouched by overfishing and pollution, could lose this status if fishing continues in [...]