Endurance test - China thwarts UK’s bid to protect Shackleton’s Antarctic wreck

Hovering our monocle over the latest Antarctic Treaty meeting report, we found that Beijing’s envoys have unleashed more than the usual polar bugbears, like holding to ransom MPAs and penguins. Joining 28 other decision-maker states at the closed-door Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, held in Kochi, India, in May, the Chinese delegation also picked on small protected areas. According to the newly issued report, which is 112,000 words long, protecting the most famous shipwreck in Antarctica did not warm the cockles of Beijing’s heart, either.

China and Russia vs the World: Endurance and the Biscoe Point blow-up

Both Beijing and Moscow, in fact, made waves by blocking the expansion of a protected area at Biscoe Point, West Antarctica, suggesting it had fishing potential that didn’t need extra red tape. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) should decide, they said. But the US claimed this would be the marine version of overpacking for a weekend trip. Sure, a 3.9 square kilometre area with 50m of water might not sound deep, but 30-plus years of US data showed a missing ice bridge had already caused chaos among seabirds. A 1.5 square kilometre protected area within the Collins Bay and Graham Coast on the Antarctic Peninsula, proposed by Ukraine, was also shot down by China as too … big and complex (yes, we know). 

The UK wanted to protect the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance from interference by imposing a 1,500m protection radius, but China and Argentina weren’t feeling nostalgic. 

Apparently, 3,000m of ocean wasn’t enough protection for the Brits, who suggested the sunken vessel had the potential to turn into a tourist hotspot. As though the UK was arguing that the wreck could become a snack for curious squid, China responded that it’s already a historical site that didn’t need more help. Let the squid decide.

China and Argentina’s objections may have stalled formal “Specially Protected Area” status, but the UK did, however, gain consensus to extend the protection zone around the Endurance to a 1,500m radius. It did so by stressing the wreck’s scientific value and extensive field of artefacts. Thus, the protection radius approved in India also “includes all items of personal possessions left on the ship by the ship’s company at the time of its sinking”.

At a future meeting, Shackleton’s legacy might yet attain full protections sought by the UK. Or consensus-blocking, fuelled by China and Argentina — the UK's old Falklands/Malvinas foe — could turn this one into another test of endurance.

China vs Russia

China recommended sharing best practices and technologies for renewable energy use in Antarctica to reduce fossil fuel reliance. 

Russia noted that while carbon emission reduction was important, it was just one of many strategic goals for Antarctic management.

The UK hit back, asking treaty parties to reflect on whether they were doing enough to address the effects of climate change. (At a time that sea ice is hovering at record lows, the UK struck a coup for transparency by publishing its carbon footprint. According to the data, its polar vessel, the Sir David Attenborough, produced carbon emissions equal to running about 9,500 UK homes in 2023/24.)

Meanwhile, emperor penguins are once again waddling into political crossfire. A proposal to declare them a “Specially Protected Species” was rejected by China, who — for the third year running — claimed the birds were just fine (as long as we ignore the melting ice caps). 

While most countries are scrambling to protect emperors, facing functional extinction by 2100, China’s firm stance continues to turn this feathered debate into a global custody battle.  

MPA talks stuck in neutral: China still blocking. But at least we know why. (Or maybe not)

CCAMLR, the fishing and conservation body, reported that the commission’s third special meeting was held in Santiago in June 2023 to talk about marine protected areas (MPAs).

The commission noted that “despite not achieving the desired outcome of creating a roadmap to establishing a representative system of MPAs, the meeting had generated a better understanding of the different positions among members, facilitating a clearer vision for a way forward”.

The commission reported that it would, as usual, host its next 10-day meeting on the edge of the known world in Hobart, Tasmania, from 14 October. 

China has blocked MPAs in Antarctica six years running. 

Decision-maker cocktail shaker

Canada and Belarus stirred up the usual diplomatic cocktail shaker. 

Canada’s bid for decision-maker status had mostly everyone on board, except some states, who asked if the Canadians were playing by the ‘scientific research’ rulebook. Those states were not named in the 2024 preliminary meeting report, but the 2022 final report identifies them as China and Russia.

Canada, ever the polite guest, expressed gratitude to those who cheered for its status request and asked for a bit more clarity on how to tweak its application. 

Concerns about Belarus’s scientific track record were tangled up with political concerns — basically helping facilitate Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of fellow decision-maker Ukraine. 

Answers to our repeated questions were not received from China's polar authorities.

Russia to UN: We’ve got this covered (and mapped)

Russia’s proposal to use Antarctica to push for a multipolar world was met with groans from those hoping for less chill and more collaboration. 

The UN High Seas Treaty was recognised as a milestone by many delegations but met with resistance by Russia, which flagged the agreement’s potential intrusion into the mandate of the Antarctic Treaty System. Why spoil a good closed-door party by allowing the UN’s pesky ocean people to call the shots?

As documented by Daily Maverick since October 2021, we also know Russia has spent decades mapping Antarctica’s oil, gas and other minerals, but international environmental laws don’t actually agree on whether Southern Ocean seabed mining is off-limits. 

A geopolitical powder keg known for making world headlines, the Russian seismic surveys — led by Rosgeo, Moscow’s mineral explorer — did not crack as much as a mention in India.

Not everyone wants the UN in Antarctica, but the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research informed the meeting it had now received accreditation from the UN Environment Programme, anyway.

An Adélie penguin sleeping on the ice, Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

Glimmers of progress 

The US has been struggling to build icebreakers. But hope glimmers on the horizon after US President Joe Biden signed a new US Antarctic policy. As the first update of presidential Antarctic policy since 1994, it is a significant development for the treaty’s lead architect.

It may be true that consensus in Antarctic governance is like trying to discuss empirical data at a family reunion full of political drama, but one hopeful development in India involved a Chilean submission to launch an avian flu biosecurity task force. 

Following a Daily Maverick investigation that exposed the treaty’s inadequate response to avian flu biosecurity, Chile suggested creating a unified protocol.

This proposal was not obstructed by anyone in India. In March, Chile’s surveillance experts had led the confirmation of the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain in Adélie penguins and cormorants on the Antarctic Peninsula, and the South American nation’s appointment to head the task force will see them putting forward a unified biosecurity model at the mid-year 2025 meeting in Italy. If no one finds a reason to obstruct these plans, which Santiago proposed as a legally binding initiative, it would mark a milestone for a diplomatic system that habitually struggles to sharpen its legal teeth.  

Russia, for instance, approved a key law for responding to small, medium and massive Antarctic environmental emergencies back in 2013 already, while the Liability Hall of Shame features a rogue’s gallery of Asian and Western states that have yet to follow suit.

And yet, there is no end to things that could go awry, or more awry, in a globally important, melting ecosystem likely facing irreversible transformation over millennia.   

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, the environmental observers to the treaty, flagged the unregulated greywater from ships, asked why geo-engineered ice curtains are being considered when surely the answer is global emissions cuts, and reminded everyone that tourists, research stations and vessels were the most prolific contributors to microplastics.

About 120,000 tourists visited the region in the 2023/24 season, a 230% increase from the 2015/16 season’s 36,700 tourists — but agreeing on a binding framework that satisfies all stakeholders (Antarctica doesn’t have one) remains contentious. DM

Read Part One of Daily Maverick’s analysis on the Antarctic Treaty’s 2024 preliminary report: “La romance fraustralienne: France, Australia form mutual admiration club while Antarctic station drowns in toxic trash”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk