World's largest marine park created in Ross Sea in Antarctica in landmark deal

Landmark agreement will create world’s largest marine park in Antarctica – video report

From The Guardian by Michael Slezak

EU and 24 countries sign long-awaited agreement to protect 1.1m sq km of water in Southern Ocean, ensuring that fewer younger fish will be caught

 A map released by ThePewTrusts showing the protected area of the Ross Sea

A landmark international agreement to create the world’s largest marine park in the Southern Ocean has been brokered in Australia, after five years of compromises and failed negotiations.
More than 1.5m sq km of the Ross Sea around Antarctica will be protected under the deal brokered between 24 countries and the European Union. It means 1.1m sq km of it – an area about the size of France and Spain combined – will be set aside as a no-take “general protection zone”, where no fishing will be allowed.
Significantly, the protections are set to expire in 35 years.
The agreement came on Friday at the conclusion of two weeks of discussions between delegates from 24 countries and the EU in Hobart, at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

 The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was established by international convention in 1982 with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life.

This was in response to increasing commercial interest in Antarctic krill resources, a keystone component of the Antarctic ecosystem.
Being responsible for the conservation of Antarctic marine ecosystems, CCAMLR practises an ecosystem-based management approach.

This does not exclude harvesting as long as such harvesting is carried out in a sustainable manner and takes account of the effects of fishing on other components of the ecosystem.

CCAMLR's contribution to global food security is through its programs of research, monitoring and introduction of conservation measures.
CCAMLR is an international commission with 25 Members, and a further 11 countries have acceded to the Convention.

Based on the best available scientific information, the Commission agrees a set of conservation measures that determine the use of marine living resources in the Antarctic.

Evan Bloom from the US state department, the head of the US delegation to the meeting, told the Guardian he was “thrilled”.
“I think it’s a really significant moment,” he said.
“We’ve been working towards this for many years.
It’s taken time to get consensus but now we have established the world’s largest marine protected area.”
It is the first marine park created in international waters and will set a precedent for further moves to help the world achieve the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s recommendation that 30% of the world’s oceans be protected.
The Antarctic protections had been urgently sought because of the importance of the Southern Ocean to the world’s natural resources.
For example, scientists have estimated that the Southern Ocean produces about three-quarters of the nutrients that sustain life in the rest of the world’s oceans.
The region is also home to most of the world’s penguins and whales.
The Ross Sea is a deep bay in the Southern Ocean that many scientists consider to be the last intact marine ecosystem on Earth – a living laboratory ideally suited for investigating life in the Antarctic and how climate change is affecting the planet.
Andrea Kavanagh, the director of Antarctic and Southern Ocean work for the Pew Charitable Trusts, which has been working for years to achieve today’s result, said: “Today, CCAMLR made history by declaring the planet’s largest marine protected area in the Ross Sea.
“This landmark decision represents the first time that nations have agreed to protect a huge area of the ocean that lies beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country and shows that CCAMLR takes its role as protector of Antarctic waters seriously.”

  Next : conserving the unspoiled Weddell Sea in the Antarctic

The Weddell Sea is one of the last pristine areas in the Antarctic, not least because the international fishing fleet has spared this region so far.

The European Union submitted a proposal to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) for a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea.

The scientific background was compiled by experts of the Alfred Wegener Institute, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

This video shows why it is worthwhile to protect this unique marine region.

The protections will not decrease the total amount of fish that are allowed to be caught in the Ross Sea, but it will move the industry away from the most crucial habitats close to the continent itself.
Russia has an industry catching antarctic toothfish there and the changes will push the fleet into waters where they will catch fewer immature fish, and where they won’t compete with as many orcas, who also rely on toothfish for food.
The agreement also establishes a large 322,000 sq km “krill research zone” that will allow for reseach catching of krill, but prohibit toothfish catching.
Additionally, a 110,000 sq km “special research zone” will be established on the outside of the no-take zone, allowing catching of krill and toothfish only for research purposes.
“Today’s agreement is a turning point for the protection of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean,” said Chris Johnson, WWF-Australia’s ocean science manager.
“This is important not just for the incredible diversity of life that it will protect, but also for the contribution it makes to building the resilience of the world’s ocean in the face of climate change.”
But the expiry of the protections in 35 years was a significant compromise.
It came after five years of failed negotiations, with opposition from China and Russia which have fishing industries in the region.
The World Conservation Union definition of a marine protected area requires it to be permanent.
“WWF has concerns that the Ross Sea agreement does not meet this standard,” Johnson said.
“We are optimistic that after years of deadlock at the annual CCAMLR meeting, today’s decision will spark renewed momentum for CCAMLR members to achieve permanent protection for the Ross Sea in coming years and also deliver marine protected areas in East Antarctica and the Weddell Sea.”

 See penguins, seals, whales, and more unique animals in this series of photos by Pew marine fellow and acclaimed photographer John B. Weller.

These stunning scenes of life in Antarctica underscore what’s at stake if the world doesn’t act now to protect the Ross Sea, Weddell Sea, and East Antarctic waters.

The Guardian understands that a proposal for 50 years of protection had been tabled but Russia wouldn’t agree.
Bloom said while the US and other countries preferred permanent protections, the compromise “was necessary in order for this to be adopted”.
Kavanagh said: “It can’t be overstated how difficult these negotiations were.”
“It took five years of talking about this one proposal exclusively to get it across the table.
And if you look at other marine reserves that are permanent, they’re in one exclusive economic zone – it’s only one country that has to make the decision.
“And I’m positive that in 35 years, the conservation values that come out of the Ross Sea, the protections will be renewed.
The world will be a different place in 35 years.”
The campaign group Avaaz had, with Leonardo DiCaprio, launched a petition calling for CCAMLR to establish “the world’s largest network of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean, starting with the Ross Sea and East Antarctica”.
It received more than 2m signatures, Avaaz said.
“There’s massive momentum in the world right now to protect our oceans,” said Luis Morago, campaign director at Avaaz.
“Governments have just set the landmark target of protecting 30% of our oceans, and millions of people all over the world are pushing for more protected areas to achieve that goal.
The Ross Sea is just the start.”

Links :

• National Geographic : World's Largest Marine Reserve Created Off Antarctica
• BBC :  World's largest marine protected area declared in Antarctica
• Climate Central : World’s New Marine Protected Area is a Big Climate Win
• Popular Science : Behold The Beauty That's Now Protected By The Ross Sea Reserve  
• Nature : World’s largest marine reserve hailed as diplomatic breakthrough
• GeoGarage blog : Future of Antarctic marine protected areas is at risk

Vendée Globe 2016-2017 day -7

Alex Thomson

Windsurfing in extreme hurricane conditions

The toughest windusrfing contest in the world, Red Bull Storm Chase, is back for 2017!
Eight of the world's top windsurfers will be pitted against windspeeds up to Force 10 (89-102kmh), huge waves and intense hurricane conditions, making for an epic battle of Man VS Nature.
The waiting period begins January 9th and the contest will hold until the strongest storm of the winter hits the Northern Hemisphere.
In anticipation for the event, take a look back at the best action highlights from the last contest.

World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns

Killer whale populations in European waters are under threat from persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Despite legislative restrictions on their use, these pollutants are still present in orcas’ blubber at levels that exceed all known marine mammal toxicity thresholds.
Photograph: Robert Pitman/NOAA/AP

From The Guardian by Damian Carrington

The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.
The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020.
Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame.
The creatures being lost range from mountains to forests to rivers and the seas and include well-known endangered species such as elephants and gorillas and lesser known creatures such as vultures and salamanders.

 The leatherback turtle, feeding here on a pyrosome, has become increasingly rare in both the tropical Atlantic and Pacific.

It declined by 95% between 1989 and 2002 in Las Baulas national park in Costa Rica, mainly caused by mortality at sea due to individuals being caught as bycatch and by development around nesting beaches.

Similar trends have been observed throughout the species’ range.
Photograph: Brian J. Skerry/NG/Getty Images

The collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which humans dominate the planet.
“We are no longer a small world on a big planet.
We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,” said Prof Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in a foreword for the report.
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, said: “The richness and diversity of life on Earth is fundamental to the complex life systems that underpin it.
Life supports life itself and we are part of the same equation.
Lose biodiversity and the natural world and the life support systems, as we know them today, will collapse.”
He said humanity was completely dependent on nature for clean air and water, food and materials, as well as inspiration and happiness.

 The European eel is declining due to disease, overfishing and changes to its freshwater habitat that impede its migration to the sea to breed.
Photograph: Erling Svensen/WWF/PA

The report analysed the changing abundance of more than 14,000 monitored populations of the 3,700 vertebrate species for which good data is available.
This produced a measure akin to a stock market index that indicates the state of the world’s 64,000 animal species and is used by scientists to measure the progress of conservation efforts.
The biggest cause of tumbling animal numbers is the destruction of wild areas for farming and logging: the majority of the Earth’s land area has now been impacted by humans, with just 15% protected for nature.
Poaching and exploitation for food is another major factor, due to unsustainable fishing and hunting: more than 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction, according to recent research.
Pollution is also a significant problem with, for example, killer whales and dolphins in European seas being seriously harmed by long-lived industrial pollutants.
Vultures in south-east Asia have been decimated over the last 20 years, dying after eating the carcasses of cattle dosed with an anti-inflammatory drug.
Amphibians have suffered one of the greatest declines of all animals due to a fungal disease thought to be spread around the world by the trade in frogs and newts.

 Desert Seas narrated by David Attenborough tells the story of how the peninsula of Arabia transformed from an ocean millions of years ago to the desert it is today.
The Gulf is now home to a myriad of sea creatures but, just as Arabia was once ocean, a mere 10,000 years ago this expanse of water was a swampy flood plain.
Since it drowned as sea levels rose, the Gulf is now the world's hottest and saltiest open sea.
The Red Sea, on the other hand, is a far older coral-fringed chasm formed as plate tectonics pulled Africa and Arabia apart; its reefs are prowled by huge moray eels and their shrimp entourages.
Splash into the waves that line this desert land and join us as we explore these waters in stunning HD and see what other treasures hide within these mysterious and little-studied seas.

Rivers and lakes are the hardest hit habitats, with animals populations down by 81% since 1970, due to excessive water extraction, pollution and dams.
All the pressures are magnified by global warming, which shifts the ranges in which animals are able to live, said WWF’s director of science, Mike Barrett.
Some researchers have reservations about the report’s approach, which summarises many different studies into a headline number.
“It is broadly right, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts,” said Prof Stuart Pimm, at Duke University in the US, adding that looking at particular groups, such as birds, is more precise.
The report warns that losses of wildlife will impact on people and could even provoke conflicts: “Increased human pressure threatens the natural resources that humanity depends upon, increasing the risk of water and food insecurity and competition over natural resources.”
However, some species are starting to recover, suggesting swift action could tackle the crisis.
Tiger numbers are thought to be increasing and the giant panda has recently been removed from the list of endangered species.

 Ocean Animals - Life Under the Sea (National Geographic)

In Europe, protection of the habitat of the Eurasian lynx and controls on hunting have seen its population rise fivefold since the 1960s.
A recent global wildlife summit also introduced new protection for pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammals, and rosewoods, the most trafficked wild product of all.
But stemming the overall losses of animals and habitats requires systemic change in how society consumes resources, said Barrett.
People can choose to eat less meat, which is often fed on grain grown on deforested land, and businesses should ensure their supply chains, such as for timber, are sustainable, he said.

“You’d like to think that was a no-brainer in that if a business is consuming the raw materials for its products in a way that is not sustainable, then inevitably it will eventually put itself out of business,” Barrett said.
Politicians must also ensure all their policies - not just environmental ones - are sustainable, he added.
“The report is certainly a pretty shocking snapshot of where we are,” said Barrett.
“My hope though is that we don’t throw our hands up in despair - there is no time for despair, we have to crack on and act.
I do remain convinced we can find our sustainable course through the Anthropocene, but the will has to be there to do it.”

Links :

• CNN : Sixth mass extinction? Two-thirds of wildlife may be gone by 2020: WWF
• The Independant : World facing first mass extinction since the dinosaurs as wildlife populations plunge by 67 per cent in 50 years
• BBC : World wildlife 'falls by 58% in 40 years'
• Christian Science Monitor : Report: Wildlife populations more than halved since 1970s
• ICES advice on eel: all anthropogenic impacts should be reduced to – or kept as close to – zero as possible

Mediterranean migrant deaths reach record level in 2016

Refugees and migrants get off a fishing boat at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in October 2015. More than 1 million refugees and migrants escaped to Europe in 2015, the UN refugee agency said.

From CNN by Laura Smith-Spark

This year has become the deadliest for migrants crossing the Mediterranean bound for Europe, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday, with those seeking to make the journey from Libya at greatest risk.
"We can now confirm that at least 3,800 people have died, making 2016 the deadliest ever," William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on Twitter.

According to UN Radio, 3,771 lives were lost during 2015, the previous highest number.
"This is the worst we have seen," Spindler told journalists at a briefing Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, as the grim record for 2016 loomed.

 Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the Mediterranean from a crowded wooden boat during a rescue operation about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on Monday, August 29

"The high loss of life comes despite a large overall fall this year in the number of people seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe."
He said at least 1.02 million made the crossing in 2015, while 327,800 have so far this year.
"From one death for every 269 arrivals last year, in 2016 the likelihood of dying has spiraled to one in 88," Spindler said.
On what's known as the Central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy, "the likelihood of dying is even higher, at one death for every 47 arrivals," he said.

A ship crowed with migrants flips onto its side Wednesday, May 25, as an Italian navy ship approaches oof the cast of Libya. Passengers had rushed to the port side, as shift in weight that proved too much. Five people died and more than 500 were rescued

Libya is a popular jumping-off point for migrants seeking to reach Europe from North Africa. Smuggling networks are well established there, and the lack of an effective central government makes the job of traffickers easier.
But the crossing can be treacherous, with too many migrants -- some fleeing war or persecution, others seeking a better life -- crammed into what are often barely seaworthy boats.

The Turkish coast guard helps refugees near Aydin, Turkey, after their boat topped en route to Greece on Friday January 22

The UN refugee agency considers the route "extremely dangerous due to the open sea, strong currents and grim weather," UN Radio said.
This year, about half those attempting the journey have taken the Central Mediterranean route, Spindler said.
He also attributed the higher death toll to people smugglers "using lower-quality vessels -- flimsy inflatable rafts that often do not last the journey."
Bad weather during the crossings may also have played a role, and he said smugglers have changed tactics so "there have been mass embarkations of thousands of people at a time," making rescuers' work more difficult.
An agreement in March between the European Union and Turkey resulted in a big reduction in the numbers setting off from Turkey for Greece, a much shorter and less treacherous route, Spindler told UN Radio.

Links :

• CNN : 'These crossings are nothing but fatal' / 3,800 dead ... and more on the way / 5,700 migrants rescued from Mediterranean in two days, authorities say
• NYTimes : ‘The Worst We Have Ever Seen’: Fewer Migrants, More Death
• BBC : Migrant deaths in Mediterranean hit record in 2016 - UN