Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources

22 October, 2018

Source: Popular Science
Author: Sara Chodosh

If you want deep sea footage to go viral, you have to give whatever creature you find a funny name. Blobfish, for example, are always popular—and now so is the ‘headless chicken monster,’ which is really a swimming sea cucumber (but sounds more interesting if you call it a headless chicken monster).

Continue reading This headless chicken is the deep-sea ‘monster’ of our dreams

15 January, 2009

On behalf of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), we extend our best wishes to you for 2009.

We wish to highlight 2009 as an important year for the conservation and protection of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. As of 31 December 2008, high seas fishing States have agreed, under UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 61/105, to prohibit their flagged fishing vessels from bottom fishing on the high seas where regulations have not been established to implement paragraphs 83 – 86 of the resolution.

Continue reading Progress report on the Implementation of UN General Assembly resolution 61/105 for the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems from the impact of bottom fisheries on the high seas

13 November, 2008

Update on the implementation of UN GA Res/61/105 With the sustainable fisheries negotiations resuming next week, below is a compilation of the latest news from recent RFMO meetings and their progress towards implementation of UNGA Resolution 61/105 paragraphs 83-86 on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems from high seas bottom fishing.  

Continue reading DSCC Update – November 2008

30 June, 2008

Since our last update in April, there is much to report with regard to protection of biodiversity in deep-sea ecosystems on the high seas. To name a few highlights: NAFO agreed on measures to implement provisions in the UNGA Sustainable Fisheries Resolution (61/105) on high seas bottom fishing; the 9th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity endorsed scientific criteria that will be important for establishing marine protected areas in the high seas; the FAO has published an updated draft of the international guidelines for managing deep-sea fisheries and the high seas (to be finalized in August); and countries are beginning to implement interim measures in the South Pacific. The DSCC is encouraged by progress in some areas towards meeting the obligations set out in 61/105, though the devil will be in the implementation details.

Continue reading DSCC Update – June, 2008

1 May, 2008

Recently touted as headline news around the world was the fact that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by a thread.” This news from Antarctica is the latest in an increasingly worrying string of stories about melting polar ice caps and the effects of climate change on global oceans, declining fish stocks, the devastation of bottom trawling, and the total human impact on the world’s oceans (see below a collection of media reports on the latest scientific findings).

Continue reading DSCC Update – April 2008

16 November, 2007

This year’s CCAMLR meeting (CCAMLR-XXVI), held in Hobart, Australia, from 22 October to 2 November adopted a Conservation Measure on bottom fishing, which maintains the existing stop on new bottom fishing activities and prioritises the necessary research and data collection to allow full development of appropriate management measures for vulnerable marine ecosystems in line with UNGA Res 61/105 at next year’s CCAMLR meeting.

Continue reading CCAMLR XXVI maintains prohibition on bottom fishing

14 July, 2006

Download this press release (pdf) The long awaited UN Report of measures to protect the vulnerable deep oceans of the high seas has confirmed that these areas receive about as much protection as the dodo did in seventeenth century Mauritius. The Report was ordered by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2004 and was conducted by the UN Oceans Division known by its acronym DOALOS.

Continue reading DSCC Response to the UN Report on High Seas Protection: Measures Sparse, Ineffective, Woefully Inadequate