June 21, 2021 — The krill-fishing industry wants acknowledgement of its voluntary conservation and data-collection efforts before any agreement is reached on new marine protected areas in the Antarctic.
The U.S. recently renewed its support for the declaration of new marine protected areas (MPAs) as part of a broader push to delineate 30 percent of global marine space as protected. However, China and Russia have in recent years objected to the establishment of further MPAs by the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which regulates fishing in the Antarctic region under a treaty signed in 1959.