by Gareth Hughes
The Ross Sea is one of the most pristine ecosystems on earth, and its vitally important we keep it that way for the health of our oceans.
That’s why it was so disappointing to see New Zealand’s proposal for an ineffective Marine Protected Area (MPA) released yesterday, which amounts to more of a fishing protection area.
I asked Foreign Minister Murray McCully in Parliament yesterday if he drew the lines himself because they carefully avoid the core biodiversity hot spots and main toothfish fishing. He said he didn’t himself, I can only presume the fishing industry did it for him.
The Antarctic Ocean Alliance released maps yesterday that show that New Zealand’s proposal will maintain the status quo, leaving the majority of the Ross Sea’s biodiversity hotspots and the most heavily fished areas open and vulnerable to exploitation.
In releasing this proposal the New Zealand Government have also rejected a proposal put forward by the United States which would see far more critically important areas of the Ross Sea protected.
There are two important steps we can all take to ensure the Government steps up to the plate and supports greater marine protection in the Ross Sea.
First of all, you can sign the Antarctic Ocean Alliance petition which calls for effective protection of the world’s great ‘last ocean’.
Secondly, we can all email Murray McCully at m.mccully@ministers.govt.nz and tell him that we want the most critical areas of the Ross Sea protected and we want New Zealand to be a leader on the issue of marine protection.
This map shows that 84 percent of the historical catch has been from areas that the NZ proposal for Ross Sea protection leaves wide open to further fishing
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Gareth Hughes on Thu, September 13th, 2012
Tags: antarctica, marine protection, oceans, ross sea
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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Just signed the petition, fingers crossed it will be enough!
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Are we intent on fishing like the end of the world is coming and we have to sell the last fish before it’s too late?
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SPC, before the end of the electoral term
That’s one of the problems with democracy.
Gareth, I’m not sure how to cite this, when I email the relevant minister. My best guess is “New Zealand’s MPA proposal to CCAMLR for the Ross Sea”. Please can we have a link to the official announcement?
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With the economic crisis the ecology is not a priority anymore. There are a lot of ong’s and scientist that warned us about the climatic change and future problems, but the capitalist engine is always hungry and will never stop, that’s how it is.
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It isn’t Capitalism so much as Capitalism coupled with debt based currency.
If one removes the latter, Capitalism can be tamed and harnessed. With the latter in place there is nothing that can restrain it.
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While I support full protection of the Ross Sea I would like to know what the truth is behind the National Party’s assertion that if we are not there fishing, it will leave the area wide open to pirates with no controls over takes etc. How do you counter that?
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Sure, simply not fishing there ourselves changes little if others still fish there. But that’s not the point, it’s about getting international agreement over whether Ross Sea is a marine reserve or not.
National are proposing that any marine reserve be a limited one, whereas the USA is proposing one that is more extensive (they don’t fish the area themelves so that’s easy for them). The New Zealand position, under National, is to propose continued fishing of significant areas by us and others.
The twisted reasoning of some, is that others (whomever these are) won’t respect a full marine reserve as proposed by the USA, but will a partial reserve, as proposed by us. Either National is very influential in these things, or it’s a load of … .
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