Our Last Ocean: All for a Plate of Fish?

The Ross sea is the most pristine and productive marine ecosystem on earth.  It is home to at least 10 mammal species including the Antarctic minke and killer whale, half a dozen species of birds, 95 species of fish and in excess of 1 000 invertebrate species.  Untouched by widespread pollution, invasive species, mining or overfishing,  the Ross Sea,  otherwise known as ‘the last ocean’, is a living laboratory providing us with our last chance to understand how healthy marine ecosystems function. 

This invaluable opportunity, however, is slowly slipping away.  Since the first fishing vessel from New Zealand was sent into the Ross Sea in 1996, international fishing fleets have targeted this remote and pristine ecosystem to harvest the Antarctic toothfish.  The most dominant fish predator in the Ross Sea, the Antarctic toothfish can grow in excess of two metres in length and over 150 kg in weight – a valuable catch for fishermen who are able to sell this “white gold” as Chilean sea bass to high-end restaurants around the world. 

So great is the market for Chilean sea bass that up to 20 long-line vessels from a dozen different nations can be found in the Ross Sea extracting up to 3 000 tonnes of toothfish – the ‘total allowable catch’ (TAC).  This fishing is done in spite of known detrimental impacts: scientists have observed a decline in killer whales, which prey almost exclusively on Antarctic toothfish; scientists are now almost unable to catch toothfish for research that has been taking place since the 1970s, when they were once able to easily catch several hundred in single season. 

New Zealand’s position in the development of this devastating plundering of natural resources, as well as its current position in the international debate regarding the protection of the Ross Sea, deserves special attention.   Aside from being the source of the first fishing vessel to enter the Ross Sea, New Zealand was one of the two counties (the United Kingdom being the other) whose fisheries campaigned and won a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco-certification label for fisheries in the Ross Sea in November last year.

This eco-certification was awarded despite three years of protest by Ross Sea scientists and advocacy organisations; the MSC’s blue label’ brands Ross Sea fisheries as sustainable, despite an internationally-recognised lack of evidence.   Significantly, the MSC allowed the final decision of whether to award the eco-certification to be made by Moody Marine Limited, a company contracted and paid for by New Zealand and UK toothfish fishers.  As Richard Page, Greenpeace International Oceans Campaigner has publically stated,

“The fishery should never have been considered for certification in the first place and now, through a convoluted and deeply flawed process, Moody Marine…has been allowed to ignore the inputs from dozens of independent scientific experts and its own peer reviewers to give the blue label to the fishery.”

In objection to the overall situation, and in particular New Zealand’s involvement, The Last Ocean Charitable Trust was established in 2009.  This non-profit organisation based in Christchurch, the gateway to Antarctica, has been campaigning to raise public and political pressure in order to establish a Ross Sea marine protected area (MPA).   MPAs are the ocean equivalent of national parks, acting to limit human impact and thus protect the natural and cultural values of an area.

It is hoped the Ross Sea MPA would encompass the entire ecosystem, including the continental shelf and slope.  A proposal for the MPA was co-ordinated by the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) in September 2009.  The proposal included a statement signed by more than 450 scientists stressing the importance of the Ross Sea’s unique ecology, and that it is imperative to preserve this ‘living laboratory’ through an MPA. 

The proposal was presented to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the international body responsible for managing the marine living resources of Antarctica.   The CCAMLR formally came into force in 1982 and is now 25 nations strong, New Zealand being one of the original members.  It operates under a strict set of conservation clauses that aim to prevent such things as the overharvesting of marine resources, and to maintain the ecological relationships of harvested species. 

Yet an obvious failing of CCAMLR is the inclusion in its 25 members of nations who are the chief consumers of Antarctic toothfish: the People’s Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States of America. New Zealand’s dual position as one of the biggest fishers of the Ross Sea, set to profit from the sale of the Antarctic toothfish at $70 a kg, and member of the CCAMLR is further damning of the Commission’s purported unbiased position as protector of the Antarctic. 

Such bias in the CCAMLR may well influence the next designation o f MPAs around Antarctica in 2012.  The CCAMLR has identified the Ross Sea as warranting protection; support from member nations the next step towards putting the ASOC proposal into practice.  As a ‘key’ nation of the Commission, New Zealand could play an important role in swinging votes towards full protection of the Ross Sea. 

New Zealand has the important geographical position of being the closest country to the Ross Sea, as well as the historical position of being a signatory nation of the initial Antarctic Treaty.  The Last Charitable Trust is campaigning for the New Zealand government to uphold history and its highly publicised ‘Clean Green’ image and lead the way to a Ross Sea MPA.  A clean green image that has recently come under fire on BBC World where John Key was confronted with the sad reality of River Manawatu in the southern North Island being one of the most polluted in the Western world. 

As a revolutionary socialist organisation, OGNA supports any campaign aiming to prevent the pillaging of our natural environment.  The loss the Ross Sea, our Last Ocean, for the sake of the profit from steak of fish must be stopped. By stopping further fishing in the Ross Sea we can preserve the last intact marine ecosystem on Earth.

New Zealand’s status as a capitalist country whose highest priority is the increase of profit is a boundary towards all environmentally friendly causes and campaigns.  The natural wealth of our country cannot compete with the allure of the profit that can be gained from harmful fishing, unsustainable farming, mining of indigenous and precious land etc.   To prevent the plundering of our natural resources, a new social and economic system is needed where overproduction and profit are not the guiding principles of industry.  

The spread of awareness and the united activity of those concerned is the start to making a true difference.  To join the force of over 600 people on the Last Ocean Charitable Trust’s petition, head to http://www.lastocean.co.nz/ and put pressure on the government to support the Ross Sea MPA proposal.   A petition alone will not change the system that is the root of the problem.  But from small actions big things can grow.  The first step to bigger things is the development of a non-violent movement that seeks to establish a system that connects everyone in the plight to solve all environmental problems.  A movement that is willing to take direct action to the establishment of socialism.  

R.L.Bradley