Punta del Este, Uruguay. Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition welcomed steps at the 33rd Antarctic Treaty meeting to make climate change a major item on the agenda, and to keep momentum going on a network of Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean.
Uruguay is hosting two Antarctic Treaty meetings which will officially be opened Monday May 3 in Punta del Este by Foreign Affairs minister Luís Almagro. Uruguayan authorities expect an attendance of over 350 foreign officials at the Thirty three Antarctic Treaty Consultative and the Thirteenth Committee on Environmental Protection meetings.
Work in Japan and Australia has revealed that a deep-ocean current is carrying frigid water rapidly northward from Antarctica along the edge of a giant underwater plateau.
The Antarctica season beginning in November is likely to be the last one as it has been known. Proposed changes to the type of fuel ships are allowed to burn and carry in this fragile ecosystem have now become a reality, making the future of big cruise ships in Antarctica uncertain.
China has sent its ocean-going fishing vessels Kai li and An Xin Hai to the Antarctic for the 2010 krill fishing season. During a 23 day exploratory fishing they caught 2.000 tons of krill, with a daily output of 100 tons, three times than originally expected.