I received an e-mail from Point Blue Conservation Science (formerly Point Reyes Bird Observatory) announcing a conservation agreement concerning the Ross Sea. The gist of it is that
the 24-nation Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) unanimously agreed to establish the Ross Sea as the world's largest marine protected area.
The CCAMLR's 24 members include the EU and the Russian federation as well as the US (list is here: www.ccamlr.org/...
Certain human activities such as fishing will be largely curtailed, though some fishing for the Antarctic toothfish will be allowed within a designated zone. The agreement sunsets after 35 years, but at least some protections are in place for the near future.
Caveat: The letter doesn't mention oil, gas and other minerals and I haven't had time to find and review the agreement yet.
crossposted from caucus99percent.com
Edited because dk5 didn’t recognize blockquote inside of paragraph attribute codes.