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Making a safe place – a home for whales – in Antarctica
As the Japanese whaling boats head for Antarctica this week, WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, has called for the full protection of Antarctica’s Ross Sea as part of WDCS’s Global Marine Protected Areas Campaign.
The proposed Ross Sea marine protected area has some of the most extraordinary wildlife on Earth including thousands of Antarctic minke whales and or ocas, or killer whales. The proposed area covers nearly 600,000 sq km, about the size of the UK and Germany combined. There are also nearly 2 million breeding Adélie penguins and 6 million Antarctic petrels, each representing roughly a third of the world population of the species, as well as some of the healthiest krill populations in the world.
“The Ross Sea is a jewel,” said Erich Hoyt, who heads up WDCS’s Global Marine Protected Areas programme. “Nowhere in the southern ocean can we observe and study such sheer abundance in a relatively pristine area that still supports both top down and bottom up ecosystem processes.”
But Japan has its eye on Antarctic minke whales, as it prepares to leave port this week for its scientific whaling campaign. As part of this campaign, since the end of commercial whaling, Japan has taken more than 1500 minke whales from the Ross Sea, defying world opinion, the commercial whaling moratorium, and the mandate of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, declared by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1994.
The Southern Ocean Sanctuary brought nations together who agreed that the Antarctic region, part of the High Seas or global commons, deserves protection, but it didn’t go far enough. Its main stipulation was as a sanctuary from whaling which Japan, in any case, refuses to abide by. The Ross Sea proposal would go much further in creating a high level of protection as well as managing fishing activity through the international Antarctic body known as CCAMLR (The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) which, among other things, is charged with setting up a network of marine protected areas within the Antarctic region.
Pristine though the Ross Sea is, one animal is conspicuous by its absence: the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived. There were once many thousands of them in the Ross Sea before whaling reduced their numbers from 256,000 in the southern ocean to the current estimate of 2280 today.
“A protected Ross Sea could once more provide a home for blue whales, too, if they are successful in coming back from near-extinction,” said Hoyt. “What people don’t realize is that the Ross Sea and its extraodinary wildlife belong to every person on Earth – it’s our common heritage. If we don’t care, no one will.”
Until blue whales return to the Ross Sea, you can meet a full length blue whale at whales.org (click on the blue whale at the side of the site and watch a blue whale, actual size, drift across your screen). Then, please sign our Global Petition for Marine Protected Areas to make a home for whales like this.
WDCS is the environment partner of Team Russia who are now in the southern ocean sailing around the world in support of WDCS’s “homes for whales” campaign. On 15th November, the Team Russia boat called Kosatka, which means “orca” in Russian, left Cape Town for Kochi, India. To follow Team Russia sailing for the whale in the Volvo Ocean Race, go to www.teamrussia.org
To meet a full-size blue whale and sign for the whale, go to www.whales.org
You can view a map and species guide of the proposed Ross Sea Marine Protected Area by clicking on the submissions icon above right.
As the Japanese whaling boats head for Antarctica this week, WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, has called for the full protection of Antarctica’s Ross Sea as part of WDCS’s Global Marine Protected Areas Campaign.
The proposed Ross Sea marine protected area has some of the most extraordinary wildlife on Earth including thousands of Antarctic minke whales and or ocas, or killer whales. The proposed area covers nearly 600,000 sq km, about the size of the UK and Germany combined. There are also nearly 2 million breeding Adélie penguins and 6 million Antarctic petrels, each representing roughly a third of the world population of the species, as well as some of the healthiest krill populations in the world.
“The Ross Sea is a jewel,” said Erich Hoyt, who heads up WDCS’s Global Marine Protected Areas programme. “Nowhere in the southern ocean can we observe and study such sheer abundance in a relatively pristine area that still supports both top down and bottom up ecosystem processes.”
But Japan has its eye on Antarctic minke whales, as it prepares to leave port this week for its scientific whaling campaign. As part of this campaign, since the end of commercial whaling, Japan has taken more than 1500 minke whales from the Ross Sea, defying world opinion, the commercial whaling moratorium, and the mandate of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, declared by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1994.
The Southern Ocean Sanctuary brought nations together who agreed that the Antarctic region, part of the High Seas or global commons, deserves protection, but it didn’t go far enough. Its main stipulation was as a sanctuary from whaling which Japan, in any case, refuses to abide by. The Ross Sea proposal would go much further in creating a high level of protection as well as managing fishing activity through the international Antarctic body known as CCAMLR (The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) which, among other things, is charged with setting up a network of marine protected areas within the Antarctic region.
Pristine though the Ross Sea is, one animal is conspicuous by its absence: the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived. There were once many thousands of them in the Ross Sea before whaling reduced their numbers from 256,000 in the southern ocean to the current estimate of 2280 today.
“A protected Ross Sea could once more provide a home for blue whales, too, if they are successful in coming back from near-extinction,” said Hoyt. “What people don’t realize is that the Ross Sea and its extraodinary wildlife belong to every person on Earth – it’s our common heritage. If we don’t care, no one will.”
Until blue whales return to the Ross Sea, you can meet a full length blue whale at whales.org (click on the blue whale at the side of the site and watch a blue whale, actual size, drift across your screen). Then, please sign our Global Petition for Marine Protected Areas to make a home for whales like this.
WDCS is the environment partner of Team Russia who are now in the southern ocean sailing around the world in support of WDCS’s “homes for whales” campaign. On 15th November, the Team Russia boat called Kosatka, which means “orca” in Russian, left Cape Town for Kochi, India. To follow Team Russia sailing for the whale in the Volvo Ocean Race, go to www.teamrussia.org
To meet a full-size blue whale and sign for the whale, go to www.whales.org
You can view a map and species guide of the proposed Ross Sea Marine Protected Area by clicking on the submissions icon above right.
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