Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Accepted
CCAMLR governance failures threaten Southern Ocean fisheries due to inadequate consensus-based decision-making.
Conclusion
The failure of negotiations at CCAMLR in 2024 exposed significant vulnerabilities in the governance of Southern Ocean fisheries. As diminishing sea ice makes Antarctica more accessible, effective regulation, particularly of krill fishing, is becoming increasingly urgent. CCAMLR’s consensus-based decision-making has proven inadequate in moments of political tension, undermining its ability to maintain precautionary fishing limits. Without reform, the risk of future deadlock will grow, leaving key marine ecosystems exposed to overexploitation. (Conclusion, Paragraph 176)
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the conclusion's findings regarding the vulnerabilities in CCAMLR governance and states it is actively advocating for Marine Protected Areas and improvements to CCAMLR's decision-making process to prevent future deadlock.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government accepts these recommendations. 39. The UK is a strong advocate for effective governance of the Southern Ocean and has consistently sought to establish a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean under the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Proposals for three large-scale MPAs in East Antarctica, the Weddell Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula have been pending for several years, despite strong scientific backing. The UK is actively working with like-minded Members, including through bilateral engagements, to garner the support of all CCAMLR Members, including China and Russia, to adopt these crucial marine protection measures. 40. The UK is also working to increase the efficiency of CCAMLR and continues to advocate for pragmatic, compromise-based solutions to enable conservation measures to be adopted, including advocating for improvements to CCAMLR’s decision-making process, to ensure the organisation can meet its conservation mandate for the Southern Ocean.