Plans for world's largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctic blocked

A plan to create the world's largest marine sanctuary in Antarctic waters was shot down when a key conservation summit failed to reach a consensus, with environmentalists on Saturday decrying a lack of scientific foresight. Member states of the organisation tasked with overseeing the sustainable exploitation of the Southern Ocean failed at an annual meeting Friday to agree over the a 1.8 million square kilometre (1.1 million square miles) maritime protection zone. The proposed sanctuary -- some five times the size of Germany -- would ban fishing in a vast area in the Weddell sea, protecting key species including seals, penguins and whales.