The amazing creatures of the world’s newest marine protected area in Antarctica

A foraging Emperor penguin preens on snow-covered sea ice around the base of the active volcano Mount Erebus, near McMurdo Station, the largest U.S. Science base in Antarctica, December 9, 2006.

After five years of debate, the Ross Sea has been declared a “marine protected area.”
The southern most ocean in the world is considered the last true wilderness left on Earth. Its waters are relatively untouched by pollution and climate change, and most of its native animals still live as they would have hundreds of years ago. Each species has a relatively small population and needs to be protected before they join the legions of  species who have disappeared from earth, in the last forty years.
The declaration was made by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which consists of 24 countries .
No one actually owns the Antarctic continent, but all countries are welcome to conduct scientific experiments there. Many countries would like to own a slice of the continent which makes up 10% of the earth's land mass. Many would like to exploit it's natural resources, off-shore oil drilling, commercial fishing, perhaps mining for minerals, even drilling wells to harvest mineral waters, which are highly commercial. The ice crust is between three to five kilometers thick making any form of mining difficult with our present technology.

A leopard seal is seen in the port of Talcahuano near Concepcion city, some 500 km (311 miles) south of Santiago. The leopard seal from Antarctica was brought to a rescue center for marine animals after she was found injured, presumably hit by a small boat.


Like a protected land reserve, this decree will ensure there will be no form of fishing or mining in the 600,000 sq miles that comprise the Ross Sea (though some regulated amount of toothfish catching will be allowed).
Though Ross Sea takes up only 2% of the Southern Ocean, it is home to nearly a third of all Adelie penguins, a third of all Antarctic petrels, and 6% of the world’s Antarctic minke whale.

Dwarf minke whale Great Barrier Reef. Pacific Ocean.

 

One reason for the bounty of wildlife is that ocean currents cause an upwelling of nutrients, making the sea a prime feeding ground.
The proposal succeeded in no small part due to the work of Lewis Pugh, the UN Patron for the Oceans, who undertook a series of death-defying swims in the freezing Antarctic waters to raise awareness of the amazing species that exist in and around the Ross Sea.

A Weddell seal lies on a beach on Lagoon Island on the Antarctic Peninsula January 14, 2009. A group of elephant seals lolling by a damaged wooden hut in Antarctica vastly complicated simple repairs on Wednesday, a sign of extra hazards to people on the frozen continent.

 

A seagull perches on a pier as two Falkland Skua birds fly away in Port Stanley

A colony of Adelie penguins settled on a rocky spur above ice melt pools gather in front of the Ross Sea ice shelf in Antarctica January 27. Scientists warned on Wednesday that the Antarctic ice shelf was in danger of melting due to global warming and warned sea global levels could rise up to six metres within one full generation. Ministers and senior officials from 24 nations gathered on the vast frozen Antarctic wastes, issuing an impassioned plea to safeguard the world's last true wilderness.

A petral , a species on the endangered list

Up to now, science has been king, thanks to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, a highly successful international agreement concluded by 12 scientifically active nations -- Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United States. Thirty-nine other nations now participate and 25 of these have active scientific research projects.

The Antarctic Treaty grew from the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58, a scientific assault on the Antarctic, and called for scientific cooperation in the area south of latitude 60 degrees. 

It froze territorial claims, banned all military activity and weapons testing, and established Antarctica as off limits to nuclear explosions and the disposal of
radioactive waste.  It provided all nations freedom of scientific inquiry but obligated them to share the results.  The question of resources was avoided in 1959, but since that time two additional treaties protect seals and marine living resources and regulate possible minerals development.

But the future of the continent is anybody's guess. The world thirst for oil, gas, and other minerals will probably determine it's future, even though today's recovery technology seems inadequate.
The scientific community feels that the fragile environment would not survive massive commercial enterprises carried on down there but when has that stopped us? Anything negatively affecting Antarctica will have very negative consequences on the entire world regarding global warming and climate change.

Lewis Pugh may not be able to hold back the entire world of entrepreneurs who wish to lay waste to this last untouched habitat forever. One hundred countries are presently challenging the protective treaties. But right now he is my number one hero.