- Creation of the “Blue Hole” marine protected area in the South Atlantic Ocean would protect thousands of square kilometers of seafloor from bottom trawling and require better working conditions on vessels fishing there. But the bill that would do so has stalled in Argentina’s Congress for years and will expire in November.
- The marine protected area would cover 148,000 square kilometers (57,100 square miles) of Argentina’s continental shelf, where global fishing fleets carry out unregulated fishing, including bottom trawling.
- The Blue Hole protected area would protect the seabed from bottom trawling but continue to allow fishing in the water column above it.
- Ratification of a U.N. treaty could enable Argentina to protect the area from all forms of fishing in the future.
A law that would protect a massive stretch of Argentina’s seafloor is running out of time for a parliamentary vote, and conservationists are racing to raise awareness before they run into major delays.
Creation of the “Blue Hole” reserve in the South Atlantic Ocean would protect thousands of square kilometers of seafloor from bottom trawling and require better working conditions on vessels fishing there. But the bill has stalled in Argentina’s National Congress for years and will expire in November.
“[This legislation] is the only tool that exists today to begin protecting the area,” said Valeria Falabella, the director of coastal-marine conservation at the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Argentina. She added, “Fishing activity really needs management and review. There aren’t only environmental problems but human rights problems.”
The Blue Hole, or Agujero Azul in Spanish, is an area of the Argentine continental shelf off the San Jorge Gulf in southern Patagonia. The shelf looks like an underwater cliff that marks the edge of the continent, where the deeper waters give it a darker-blue hue. Deep-sea currents feed the area with nutrients that sustain an incredible amount of biodiversity, from sponges and corals to southern right whales (Eubalaena australis).
This hotbed of marine life straddles the imaginary line 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from Argentina’s coast that divides the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), where it exerts exclusive fishing rights, from international waters. Just beyond the line, global fishing fleets trawl the Blue Hole’s seabed for red shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri), pollock (Genypterus blacodes) and black hake (Dissostichus eleginoides), among other marine species. The practice involves dragging nets along the seabed, disturbing sediment that provides species with shelter, food and breeding grounds. And they doggedly pursue squid in the waters above.
In 2019, Argentina formally extended its continental shelf jurisdiction out to 350 mi (650 km) from shore, a move that enables it to protect areas beyond its EEZ. The Blue Hole marine protected area would cover 148,000 km2 (57,100 mi2) here — an area the size of Bangladesh. However, Argentina only controls the seabed, but not the water column, beyond its EEZ, so the Blue Hole reserve would only protect life on the seafloor, not in the water column above it.
Despite extending jurisdiction to the continental shelf, a bill to create the Blue Hole MPA failed to gain traction in Congress in 2019, losing its parliamentary status and forcing lawmakers to introduce a new version in 2022. It was approved by the lower house and sent to the Senate for a final vote, but it’s been stuck there due to a backlog of other legislation and pauses to congressional sessions during the 2023 presidential election.
This year, Congress has devoted most of its time to a sweeping reform package introduced by President Javier Milei, leaving other pending legislation unaddressed. If lawmakers don’t vote on the Blue Hole MPA before Nov. 30, it will lose its parliamentary status once again and a new bill will have to be introduced, further delaying a vote on the MPA’s creation.
“It’s necessary that this be prioritized on the parliamentary agenda, because that’s what isn’t happening right now,” said Laura Lapalma, project coordinator for the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), a conservation and human rights group in Argentina. “At this moment, Argentina has a lot of other issues and they aren’t prioritizing this one.”
The Blue Hole MPA would begin at the outer limit of Argentina’s EEZ. Beyond that boundary, in the open sea, anyone is free to fish, and fleets from countries like China, Spain and South Korea have been active there for years.
Illegal activity is common in the area, Falabella said. International vessels often fish beyond the legal limit, don’t declare all of their catches, and even turn off their tracking beacons to ensure they go undetected. There’s also little oversight of how crew members are treated on board, resulting in forced labor and other human rights abuses.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongabay reported that around 100 international vessels were illegally fishing in the area, in some cases crossing over into the waters meant only for Argentine ships.
“Because it doesn’t have any type of control or regulation, there’s no data and there aren’t statistics that allow us to evaluate the number of catches or how much is being thrown back, what incidental mortality of birds or mammals there is,” Falabella said.
The Secretariat of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship have both come out in favor of the bill establishing the Blue Hole MPA, saying that overfishing on the continental shelf could deplete some species’ populations and destroy the fishing industry in the long run.
For them, regulation is a long-term investment.
“This project puts on the table in a much stronger way the issue of conservation at mile 201 in international waters where the place where there is no law affects the biomass of the place where there is law,” then-Foreign Minister Felipe Solá said in a statement.
If the Argentine Congress does create the Blue Hole MPA this year, or at some point in the future, conservationists say they’ll continue fighting for additional protection measures in the area. Their top priority is regulation of the entire water column, instead of just the seafloor. That could become a reality with the ratification of the U.N.’s “high seas” treaty, which would allow countries to increase protections in areas beyond their national jurisdiction.
“It’s an enormous opportunity to incorporate the entire water column of the Blue Hole and give it the comprehensive protection that’s appropriate and needed in that area,” Falabella said.
Banner image:Fishermen collect hake in Argentina. Photo by Martín Brunella.
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