Protecting the Southern Ocean ecosystem: the environmental protection agenda of Antarctic diplomacy and science

On the morning of 1 March 1978, Richard Laws, the director of the British Antarctic Survey and a leading marine biologist, gave a scientific lecture describing the characteristics of the Southern Ocean ecosystem to the first session of a diplomatic conference on the conservation of Antarctica’s marine living resources in Canberra, Australia. He gave his presentation to the delegations to this meeting – composed of both diplomats and scientists – in their scientific working group. These diplomats and scientists had talked about the Southern Ocean ecosystem for some time and had committed to its conservation at the 1977 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting....