{"id":31696,"date":"2016-10-20T09:59:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T08:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=31696"},"modified":"2016-10-20T23:23:41","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T22:23:41","slug":"antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-pits-fishing-against-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2016\/10\/20\/antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-pits-fishing-against-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic ice shelf collapse pits fishing against science"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK is calling for a ten-year fishing moratorium in seas vacated by Antarctica’s collapsing ice shelves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposal, which was shared with Climate Home, passed the scientific committee of the UN Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Russia has the power to veto the move\u00a0when it goes to a full commission debate in Tasmania next week, however, and has consistently opposed\u00a0territorial limits to fishing vessels in the far\u00a0south.<\/p>\n

The collapse of an ice shelf\u00a0provides a one-of-a-kind\u00a0scientific laboratory, said\u00a0Phil Trathan, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey and one of the authors of the proposal. The newly open\u00a0waters provide\u00a0a window into the hidden processes of ocean ecosystems.<\/p>\n

“All of these areas are covered by ice and when that goes then there’ll be a whole new community develop under there. And given that a lot of communities develop quite slowly in the Antarctic then we can look at how they develop through time,” said\u00a0Trathan speaking from Hobart, where the CCAMLR meeting is taking place.<\/p>\n

“If fisheries are going to exploit those areas before we have a chance to look at them scientifically then it’s a lost opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Weekly briefing:<\/strong> Sign up for your essential climate politics update<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Antartica’s\u00a0great ice shelves project out over the ocean from the fringes of the land. They are in a state of rapid decline<\/a>,\u00a0losing a total of\u00a0310 cubic km of ice every year.<\/p>\n

Once a shelf becomes too thin to support its own weight, it collapses in dramatic style, as was witnessed by satellites when the\u00a03,250 sq km Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated within a few months at the beginning of 2002.<\/p>\n