A proposal to create the world's largest marine reserve by protecting a huge expanse of ocean off Antarctica has failed yet again, with delegates at a meeting in Australia putting the blame on Russia and China.
At the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, held this year in the Australian city of Hobart, the United States together with New Zealand jointly proposed the establishment of a reserve in the Ross Sea that, at more than 500,000 square miles, would have been larger than the state of Texas.
A second proposal by Australia, the European Union and France would have created four additional reserves in eastern Antarctic waters totaling some 386,000 square miles.
While both proposals had strong support, all of the 24 countries of the commission must agree, something that has not happened at three previous commission gatherings and apparently has failed again.
Although the commission's deliberations are never made public, a number of nonvoting delegates from attending NGOs said Russia and China were against the proposals.
Russia, which like a number of nations has fishing interests in Antarctic waters, has been a holdout against similar proposals in the past.
Current tensions between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine likely made the passage of the proposals even more unlikely this time around, experts said.
"The overall political situation, where Russia is in a political confrontation with other countries, mainly Western or NATO countries, overshadows negotiations" at international meetings like that of the marine commission, said Grigory Tsidulko, a member of the Russian NGO Antarctic Ocean Alliance who was at the talks.
However, he said, Russian delegation told the commission meeting that although it had reservations about the current proposals it was open to further talks.
China, which has ambition of expanding its fishing fleets, was also singled out as likely to have blocked the proposals.
China's official delegation has been hesitant to commit to decisions regarding large-scale marine reserves, said Jiliang Chen of the Chinese NGO Greenovation Hub.
However, he said, he held out hope for future cooperation.
"National policies are moving towards environmental protection," he said. "Good things are happening domestically so I hope we can, in future, contribute more to the conservation of the Antarctic."
Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Southern Ocean protection project for The Pew Charitable Trusts, expressed frustration at yet another failure of efforts to protect marine life in the Antarctic.
"It's crushing that for the fourth time in three years this hasn't gotten through," she said. "Every year we wait leaves this near pristine ecosystem vulnerable to fishing."
