Endurance wreck protection advances to September vote
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- UKAHT proposed making the Endurance wreck and surrounding sea Antarctica's first specially protected underwater area, passing without dissent at last month's meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, of countries that govern human activities in Antarctica.
- The proposal still needs agreement from CCAMLR — a 27-member body including China and Russia that has been deadlocked for three years on marine protected areas — at its September meeting.
- Camilla Nichol, UKAHT's chief executive, said reduced seasonal ice cover and increased shipping over the last decade are making the wreck more accessible, and that 'submarine activity is growing' in the region.
- Marine biologists found what may be a new species of wood-eating crustacean from genus Munidopsis on the wreck — significant because no timber-eating creatures have been recorded in Antarctic waters, which has helped preserve the ship's timber.
- Shackleton's Endurance sits at 3,000 metres in the ocean's 'midnight zone'; vessels already need a permit from an Antarctic Treaty signatory to enter a 1.5km radius around the site.
- Dr. Huw Griffiths of the British Antarctic Survey said a warming climate could allow new species to colonise the wreck, and warned that damage to the reef would take 'decades to recover.'
Why it matters: The Endurance would become Antarctica's first protected underwater area, a status 27 CCAMLR member states including China and Russia have failed to agree on for three years. The September vote is the final hurdle, and Dr. Huw Griffiths of the British Antarctic Survey warned that any damage to the wreck's deep-sea ecosystem would take decades to recover.
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