This October, two dozen countries and the European Union will decide the fate of some of the most important penguin habitat on Earth. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, or CCAMLR, could create the world’s largest marine reserves in the Ross Sea and the waters off East Antarctica. These large-scale protections would preserve penguin foraging and breeding grounds, and help build resilience to warming seas and melting and shifting ice.
Countries have tried three times to agree on the fate of Antarctic waters and each time have failed to reach consensus. It’s time for international leaders to step up and make the right decision for the future of penguins and the health of some of the world’s incredible ocean spaces.
Tell CCAMLR you want action now. The world’s penguins are depending on us.
Dear CCAMLR Chair, Delegates, and Secretariat:
I know that the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has agreed to create a network of marine protected areas in the ocean around Antarctica. I am disappointed that you failed to meet your own deadline to have the first MPA established by 2012. As a global citizen concerned about our environment, I very much care about the decisions you make to protect the waters of Antarctica and the amazing life it contains.
As the steward of the Southern Ocean, it is CCAMLR’s mandate to conserve Antarctic marine living resources. These marine ecosystems support populations of penguins, seals, whales, and other essential biodiversity.
To protect these remarkable species and the ecosystems that support them, I call on the Commission to establish a network of large-scale marine protected areas and fully protected marine reserves to safeguard Antarctica’s key ocean habitats while we still can.
[Your comments will go here]
The Ross Sea and East Antarctica are some of the last remaining, near pristine marine environments in the world. I urge you to protect them by designating very large, permanent, and meaningful marine reserves at the annual meeting of CCAMLR in Hobart this October. Please do the right thing and protect Antarctica’s ocean for future generations.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
