Launch of Campaign to Protect the Ross Sea

Launch of Campaign to Protect the Ross Sea

The Christchurch-based Last Ocean Charitable Trust believes commercial fishing is threatening the natural balance of the Ross Sea, Antarctica – the last intact open ocean ecosystem on earth.

On March 16, the Trust will be hosting a launch for invited guests at Logan Brown Restaurant in Wellington. The primary purpose of the launch is to announce the new website for the Trust, www.lastocean.co.nz. It also signals the beginning of a public and political campaign calling for the entire Ross Sea region to be designated a Marine Protected Area.

At the launch, award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of the Last Ocean project, Peter Young, will present an audio-visual presentation containing footage from his upcoming documentary about the Ross Sea.

Beautiful, remote, and highly fragile, the Ross Sea Antarctica is the most pristine ocean ecosystem left on earth1. Historically the region offered scientists the chance to research marine processes unencumbered by human interference, pollution or exploitation. This all changed in 1996 when New Zealand sent the first fishing vessel to the Ross Sea.

Now an international fleet of vessels heads south each summer in search of the valuable Antarctic toothfish, a large cod-like fish sold worldwide as ‘Chilean sea bass’. Fetching upwards of $60/kg in northern hemisphere markets, the catch is lucrative, but the Last Ocean Charitable Trust believes the Ross Sea has far greater value as an intact marine ecosystem.

The Antarctic toothfish is both a key predator and prey item in the Ross Sea food web, and continued fishing threatens to disrupt the natural dynamic balance of the entire ecosystem. Such disruptions undermine the value of scientific research programmes in the Ross Sea, including some that have run for several decades.

The Ross Sea is considered a living laboratory of global importance and the Last Ocean Trust would like to see it remain that way.

Dr. David Ainley, veteran Antarctic ecologist and scientific advisor to the Last Ocean Charitable Trust, says, “If the Ross Sea ecosystem is compromised, the last chance to understand the complexity of a completely healthy ocean ecosystem will disappear, forever.”

The timing of this campaign is crucial because the international body managing the Ross Sea fishery (CCAMLR, the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) is meeting in 2012 to decide the extent of protection for the waters around Antarctica. CCAMLR has earmarked the Ross Sea area as having natural features worthy of protection, but the proposal still requires support from key nations including New Zealand.

The Last Ocean Trust will be working hard through 2011 and 2012 to make sure New Zealanders know about the issue and that decisions regarding the Ross Sea do not go unnoticed.

The Trust’s new website is www.lastocean.co.nz

ENDS