The Ross Sea, 1.57 Million Square Kilometers to be Protected in Antarctica
The last intact ocean
After five years of negotiations, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), bringing together 24 countries sitting with the European Union, announced, on Friday, October 28, 2016, the creation of a very large marine protected area (MPA) in the Ross Sea, a bay of the Austral Ocean that surrounds the Antarctica continent between the Marie Byrd Land in the East and the Victoria Land in the West. The classification of the Ross Sea as a protected area in MPA, was initially proposed by the United States and New Zealand. Russia was the last country to oppose the project because of fishing rights.
The surface of this area covers 1.57 million square kilometers – the equivalent of the surface of France, Germany and Spain – 1.12 million of which is totally protected, where any kind of sampling, particularly the fishing, will be totally forbidden. It is thus the biggest recognized marine sanctuary.
The Ross Sea shelters an exceptional biodiversity and is considered by the scientific community as " the last intact ocean ".
This agreement is scheduled to come into force by December, 2017 for a period of 35 years.
Associated areas of specialisation: Environment