Canberra, Nov 4 (IANS) Delegates from 25 nations at a Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting in the Tasmanian capital Hobart Friday agreed to a plan to create the world’s largest marine reserve in the waters around Antarctica.
The meeting accepted a framework for protected areas in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean, reported Xinhua.
While key countries fishing there at the moment includes Russia, Norway, South Korea, New Zealand, Britain and Spain, the proposal will prohibit industrial fishing in the reserves.
The Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA), a coalition of environmental groups including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, said the agreement was a positive step.
“(The commission’s) member countries now have all the tools to create a circumpolar network of marine reserves,” Greenpeace spokesman Richard Page said in a statement released Friday.
“(They) must act now to protect the penguins, seals, seabirds and other vulnerable marine life inhabiting the icy waters around Antarctica and so lead the way in protecting the high seas.”
CCAMLR is set to make a decision by the end of next year on exactly what areas will be protected in the Southern Ocean.
Signatory parties to the convention include Australia, China, Japan, Britain and the US.
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