Vern Cotter is "disappointed" he is leaving his job as Scotland head coach but "respects" Scottish Rugby's decision to appoint Gregor Townsend.

The union announced in August that Glasgow Warriors boss Townsend would replace Cotter in June.
Former Clermont head coach Cotter has subsequently secured a return to France with Montpellier for next year.
"Holistically, I understand," said Cotter, who has named his squad for November's autumn Test series.
"As a competitor, you're always disappointed if you're doing something and you want to go somewhere and you've got objectives in mind, naturally, but that's the deal and that's done.
"The decision was made to put Gregor in place. I think it's a good decision and the executives made their decision. I respect it and just move on."
Cotter, whose side face Australia (12 November), Argentina (19 November) and Georgia (26 November) in his last autumn internationals as Scotland head coach, says the "big year" ahead should keep the players focused.
"There's more important things than just us," he said of himself and Townsend. "It's a Lions year, there's places to be taken on that trip in June against New Zealand.
"The players are professional and they'll be wanting to play well for their club, whether it's Glasgow, and then shifting through to international stuff - whether it's a young player or established players.
"Look at [Edinburgh hooker] Ross Ford. It could be his 100th game [for Scotland]. Those sort of things take precedence.
"It's not about us, it's about the bigger picture."


David Cameron has said the economy is enjoying a "great British revival" as he launched the Conservatives' local election campaign.

Speaking in Staffordshire, the prime minister said the UK's fortunes had turned around since 2010 and his party wanted to "finish the job".
He also promised to "make sure" UK voters get a referendum on whether to leave the European Union.
He said Labour "won't" deliver a referendum and UKIP was "discredited".
Labour said the Conservatives were "obsessed" by the electoral threat from the UK Independence Party rather than focusing on the economic pressures facing families.
On 22 May, 161 councils in England - including Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle Upon Tyne and London's 32 boroughs - will be holding elections.
On the same day, there will be elections to 11 councils in Northern Ireland and polls to choose the UK's 73 members of the European Parliament will also be held.
Mr Cameron said the elections were a chance for the Conservatives to "get its message out" that it was the only party with a credible, long-term plan to ensure the recovery was sustained.
While the UK was seeing a strong upturn in manufacturing, exports and employment, he said more needed to be done to guarantee long-term prosperity for all.
"Britain is coming back," he said. "We came through the great recession together. We are building the great British revival together.
"And we've got to be very clear. The great British revival doesn't come with a life-time guarantee. The job is not done...If you want to finish the job we have started, back the party with a plan."
The Conservatives, he added, had a record of delivering lower council taxes than their rivals.
On Europe, he said the Tories were the only party which could guarantee change in the UK's relationship with the EU and took aim at UKIP, which polls suggest could get the most votes in the European polls.
"I don't need to discredit UKIP. They have done a good enough job of that over the last few weeks."
The prime minister, who has promised an "in-out" referendum by the end of 2017 if the Conservatives win next year's general election, said: "To those people who say you won't deliver on that renegotiation or on that referendum, I say: Judge me by my record as prime minister.
"Others talk about acting in the national interest or in standing up to Europe, I do it, time and again - often in the teeth of opposition in Brussels and with a backdrop of uncertainty about whether it can really happen at home."
Mr Cameron added: "People said I would never veto a European treaty. In 2011 that's exactly what I did. People said my attempts to cut the European budget would fail. But I secured that cut.
"People said I couldn't get Britain out of the eurozone bailout scheme which Labour got us into, but I did just that. And now, we're not liable to pay for any eurozone country that needs a bail-out.
"So I have a track record of delivery - and believe me, whatever it takes, I will deliver this in-out referendum. Labour won't. UKIP can't. I will."
He repeated his pledge that he would not serve as prime minister in a government after 2015 that could not deliver a referendum.
"Let me be absolutely clear. The British people need to have their say on our membership of the EU. For me this is a fundamental principle..Because the British people deserve their say. And I will make sure they get it."
Labour said Mr Cameron was showing "weakness not leadership" over Europe.
"With things getting harder, the big question at this election is who will best stand up for hardworking families, but David Cameron is in the pocket of the privileged few, in fear of UKIP and incapable of raising living standards for ordinary people," said shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher.


There are 1.6 million pupils in England who are still not getting a good education but there is a failure to deal with under-performing schools, a spending watchdog has said.

A report from the National Audit Office said there was a lack of consistency in tackling under-performance.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said she was "appalled" at the lack of progress.
The Department for Education said schools "have been transformed".
A DFE spokeswoman said the report's conclusions were "not supported by the facts" as the proportion of schools rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding had risen from 68% to 81% since August 2010.
Head teachers also argued that the watchdog's report was painting an excessively "bleak picture" of school standards.
The National Audit Office has warned that despite Â£382m being spent each year on monitoring schools and interventions, there are weaknesses in efforts to raise standards.
In particular it raised questions about how much the Department for Education knows about problems at school level, in a system with increasing autonomy for individual schools and academy chains.
"Some academy sponsors are very successful, but the department does not yet know why others are not," said the National Audit Office.
It drew attention to concerns, voiced by Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, that the watchdog cannot inspect academy trusts.
"Ofsted is unable to inspect sponsors and multi-academy trusts so there is no independent source of information about the quality of their work," said the spending watchdog.
Concerns over the oversight of academies emerged in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal in Birmingham - and the report warned of a lack of checks on governors to "prevent risks such as entryism" - where a group of like-minded individuals infiltrate an organisation aiming to take it over.
"Greater school autonomy needs to be coupled with effective oversight and assurance. The department has made some improvements but has further to go," said Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office.
"There are significant gaps in the department's understanding of what works," he said.
The report highlighted the 1.6 million pupils in schools which have inspection grades of either "inadequate" or "requires improvement".
Mrs Hodge said the figures from the spending watchdog showed it is "hard to see how formal interventions make any difference", with 52% of schools not improving Ofsted grades after intervention and 59% improving without any intervention.
She said it was a "sorry state of affairs when the department has to rely on whistleblowers to spot declines in school performance".
But head teachers rejected the findings.
"The reality is nowhere like the bleak picture painted somewhat dramatically today," said Malcolm Trobe of the Association of School and College Leaders.
"The evidence from Ofsted is that schools are improving year on year," he said.
David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said councils needed to be freed from the "red tape" that delayed their intervention.
"Councils want to intervene more quickly, but decades of giving schools "greater freedom" and "protecting" them from council interference means that local authorities now have very indirect and bureaucratic ways to tackle poor performance and improve schools."
Christine Blower, head of the National Union of Teachers, said the findings were a "damning verdict on a government obsessed with change for change's sake and poor on accountability".
Labour's shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said the report was an "utterly damning account" of the government's failure in education.
"It makes clear that the government has no plan for tackling poor standards and simply does not know who is responsible for overseeing schools and the safeguarding of children."
But a Department for Education spokeswoman said "huge progress" had been achieved in improving schools.
"England's schools have been transformed over the past few years with 800,000 more children now being taught in good or outstanding schools since 2010.
"This is a great achievement but we would be the first to admit that the job is not yet done.
"Any child being taught in a failing school is an opportunity lost, which is why we have intervened in more than 1,000 failing schools over the past four years - pairing them up with excellent sponsors to give pupils the best chance of receiving an excellent education."


Graeme Shinnie's 25-yard strike secured Aberdeen a narrow victory over Apollon Limassol in the first leg of the Europa League third qualifying round tie.

The home side surged to an early lead at Pittodrie when Ryan Christie scored with a header after just four minutes.
The Cypriot side grew in confidence and stature in the second half, though, and equalised through Ribeiro Santana.
Yet indiscipline cost the visitors, with Esteban Sachetti dismissed before Shinnie's winner.
Apollon head coach Sofronis Avgousti had already been sent to the stand, just after the Cypriot side equalised.
It may have been a rare home European win for the Dons, but given their excellent away form in the Europa League they will be confident of seeing the job through in Larnaca next Thursday night; and they did it without their main hitman.
Only Mark McGhee, John Hewitt and Drew Jarvie have scored more European goals for Aberdeen than Adam Rooney, but he may have to wait until the final qualifying round to add the nine he already has.
The Irishman had a scan on a hamstring injury the day before the first leg tie and faces a race to be fit not just for the second leg in Cyprus but also the Premiership opener at home to Hamilton on Sunday week.
Early on, it didn't look as if the loss of their most prolific striker in recent years would matter that much. Aberdeen started impressively, with a performance of pace, intensity and pressing that Apollon found hard to resist.
They were also boosted by an early goal, with Celtic's on-loan midfielder Christie once again the man that mattered after scoring in the home leg against Siroki Brijeg before creating both in the away win in the last round.
This time, the midfielder linked up effectively with former Celtic winger Gary Mackay-Steven, looping in a header from the latter's inviting cross from the left.
Greg Stewart came in for some heavy treatment from Sachetti and the Argentinian midfielder was lucky to escape with only a yellow card for a shocking challenge on the former Dundee striker.
However, to their credit the Cypriot side somehow survived the Dons early onslaught and started to play their way into the game with some neat passing movement that only lacked a cutting edge.
It was unsurprising that Christie came closest to increasing Aberdeen's lead before the break with another lovely bit of skill at the edge of penalty area, only to see his shot fly just wide.
Like the home leg against Siroki Brijeg, though, Aberdeen looked second best for long spells after the break, with substitute Antonio Jakolis causing problems down the right wing, so much so that he created an equaliser.
The Croatian burst clear before pulling the ball back for Brazillian left back Jander to force an effort over the line from close range.
It looked ominous for Aberdeen at that stage but Avgousti was sent to the stand before the restart and worse was to follow when Sachetti picked up a second yellow card after flattening Christie with 19 minutes remaining.
The captain Shinnie rose to the occasion, with a stunning strike right out of the blue from 20 yards that arched its way into the top right-hand corner of the net.


After the bottom-half sides completed their campaign on Saturday, the Scottish Premiership's top six round the league season off with three fixtures on Sunday.

Champions Celtic will be presented with the Premiership trophy after their match against Motherwell - Ronny Deila's last match in charge of the Glasgow side.
Elsewhere, Ross County visit Aberdeen and Hearts host St Johnstone.
And, in the Championship play-off final second leg, Ayr United and Stranraer are tied at 1-1 going into their meeting at Somerset Park.
Click on the links below for team news and previews, times are BST.
SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP (all 12:30)
Aberdeen v Ross County
Celtic v Motherwell
Hearts v St Johnstone
SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF FINAL SECOND LEG
Ayr United v Stranraer (agg 1-1) (15:00)
SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4-0 Dundee
Kilmarnock 2-4 Dundee United
Partick Thistle 2-2 Hamilton Academical
SCOTTISH LEAGUE ONE PLAY-OFF FINAL SECOND LEG
Queen's Park 0-1 Clyde (agg 3-2)
SCOTTISH LEAGUE TWO PLAY-OFF FINAL SECOND LEG
East Stirlingshire 0-1 Edinburgh City (agg 1-2)


North Sea oil firm EnQuest has forecast a 33% rise in production next year, after output climbed in the second half of 2015.

The Aberdeen-based firm said production had been "very strong" across its portfolio.
Output averaged more than 41,000 barrels a day from July to November, a year-on-year rise of nearly 40%.
Its full-year production guidance for 2015 continues to be somewhere between 33,000 and 36,000 barrels a day.
Its estimate for next year is for an average of 44,000 to 48,000 barrels.
The company said second-half output had been boosted in part by the Alma/Galia development, which came onstream in the Central North Sea in late October.
Its growth predictions for next year do not include its Kraken and Scolty/Crathes developments, which have yet to come onstream.
EnQuest has a 60% interest in Kraken, which lies east of Shetland.
The company said Kraken was "firmly on schedule" to produce first oil in the first half of 2017.
It also confirmed it had sanctioned the start of the $125m Scolty/Crathes field development plan. Drilling there is due to start by the middle of 2016, with first oil expected in 2017.
EnQuest chief executive Amjad Bseisu said: "EnQuest is addressing its priorities in this low oil price environment: delivering on production and execution targets, streamlining operations and strengthening the balance sheet."
The update came amid reports that EnQuest is seeking to sell stakes in several of its North Sea assets.
News agency Reuters said the company had launched a process to farm out a stake in the Heather/Broom field. EnQuest currently owns 63% of the field.
It also reported that EnQuest was seeking to sell up to a quarter of its stake in Kraken, and a 10%-20% share of Scolty/Crathes, in which it has a 50% interest.
The company has yet to confirm the reports.


A UK-Indian team of scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of limbless amphibian.

The animal was identified by accident in the Western Ghats area in the state of Kerala, South India.
The specimens were found inside moist soil after digging the shrub-covered bank of a mountain stream.
The creature - about 168mm in length and pink in colour - belongs to an enigmatic, limbless group of amphibians known as the caecilians.
Ramachandran Kotharambath, lead author of the report, told the BBC Tamil Service that the animal was identified as a new species following extensive comparisons with other, similar examples from this amphibian group.
According to the researchers, specimens of the novel caecilian - named
          Gegeneophis primus - were collected during field works in two consecutive monsoons, first in October 2010 and then in August 2011.
They were discovered at a valley on a plantation in the Wynad district of Kerala.
The new finding was made as part of a longstanding research collaboration between the department of zoology at the University of Kerala and London's Natural History Museum. The Central University at Kasargod in Kerala also contributed to of the discovery.
The finding has been reported in the latest edition of the academic journal Zootaxa.
Caecilian facts and videos at BBC Nature
The wider distribution, natural history and habitat preferences of the species are yet to be determined.
The discovery of this species indicates that the caecilian amphibians might have great diversity all along the Western Ghats area said Mr Ramachandran.
"The discovery on a plantation points out that these elusive animals are very vulnerable to anthropogenic activities and are living silently right under our feet," he explained
The new species do not face any immediate threat as long as the habitat structure is maintained, according to the scientists.
They also say that they need to know how far and wide this species is distributed and what are the habitat requirements.
Though these tiny amphibians are at least safe now, any major modification in the plantation structure could dangerously affect the species survival, said Mr Ramachandran
Co-author Dr Oommen says the discovery was significant since the finding ended a hiatus of almost half-a-century. "It highlights the fact that the knowledge of caecilian amphibians of the Western Ghats remains incomplete and in need of further study."


A trucker who raised nearly £200,000 for relatives of the driver killed in the Berlin Christmas market attack has been thanked by the Polish ambassador at a ceremony in London.

Dave Duncan, of Otley, West Yorkshire, set up a crowdfunding campaign to help Lukasz Urban's relatives.
Mr Urban was found dead after his lorry was crashed into the Breitscheidplatz market in December, killing 12 people.
Mr Duncan said he felt compelled to help his "fellow trucker".
Attacker Anis Amri left at least 48 injured when he ploughed into crowds at the German market.
Mr Urban, a Polish national, had been stabbed and shot.
The driver had arrived in Berlin ahead of schedule to deliver steel beams and was asked to return the next day to unload his trailer.
Mr Duncan said: "If they had unloaded their freight none of this would have happened and Lukasz would have been able to go home and spend Christmas with his family."
He said it was that thought that made him want to do something to help "the innocent people left devastated by this".
"It could have been any one of us there that day," he added.
Since setting up the online fund, Mr Duncan has met Mr Urban's widow and son.
He said: "They were extremely grateful and shocked by the support, and that a stranger would help them this way when nobody else would."
Mr Urban's family invited Mr Duncan to attend the driver's funeral in Banie, near the Polish border with Germany.
He said it was "a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful place", adding: "Although I felt detached by the language barriers, it was very moving, especially the amount of people who came to pay their respects."
The Polish ambassador, Arkady Rzegocki, honoured Mr Duncan on Monday for his actions.
He said the lorry driver's "gesture and presence at the funeral of the late Mr Urban, have been greatly appreciated in Poland".
Mr Duncan added: "The Polish truckers' own tributes are what being a truck driver is all about.
"We have to watch out for one another, as in most cases nobody else does."
Mr Rzegocki said he wanted to "personally thank Mr Duncan for his selfless initiative".
"His compassion moved many both in the UK and back in Poland. It is an inspiring example of British-Polish solidarity which never fails in times of crisis," he added.
The ceremony took place in London at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland.


Craig Bryson scored three as Derby secured a record-equalling biggest win over rivals Nottingham Forest to revive his team's automatic promotion hopes.

The Rams had not scored in four matches but led when Bryson bundled a shot in after a scramble.
He doubled the lead when he finished from Chris Martin's lay-off before Jeff Hendrick finished a counter-attack to make it three.
Derby legend Steve Bloomer scored a hat-trick in his team's 5-0 win over Forest in 1898. There is a statue of the England striker, who died at the age of 64 in 1938, by the dug-outs at the iPro Stadium.
Johnny Russell drove in a fourth before Bryson scored a penalty.
Bryson's hat-trick was a first for a Derby player in this fixture since Steve Bloomer's treble in a victory by the same scoreline in 1898.
While the Rams have not given up hope of catching second-placed Burnley, the play-off hopes of Billy Davies' Nottingham Forest have been hit by a miserable run that has now seen them fail to win in seven league matches.
Steve McClaren's Derby had fallen away from the top two by failing to score in a winless run of four games but they took the lead after five minutes when Bryson's shot flew in off Danny Collins.
Radoslaw Majewski had a curling shot held by Derby goalkeeper Lee Grant as the visitors began to control possession but they found themselves two behind when Bryson finished from Martin's pass.
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Eight minutes before the break, the Rams made it three when they broke quickly from a Forest corner and Patrick Bamford played through for Hendrick to shoot under goalkeeper Karl Darlow.
Substitute Russell thumped in the fourth from just outside the area after a heavy spell of pressure.
Darlow pushed away a flick from Martin but then gave away a penalty for a clip on Bamford to allow midfielder Bryson to convert from the spot for his 15th league goal of the season.
Derby head coach Steve McClaren:
"We knew if we kept doing the right things the end product would come and there's no better day to do it than today in front of 33,000 fans.
"I think this win is for the Derby fans.
"We got Nottingham Forest at a good time with all the injuries but I think this is the best win and probably the most satisfying purely because we kind of controlled the whole game."
Nottingham Forest assistant manager David Kelly:
"Huge credit to Steve and his group, they thoroughly deserved the victory but we were disappointed in how we defended.
"It was a disappointing catalogue of goals we gave away and what we were working on during the week was disappointing in how it was executed on the day.
"It's a huge, huge game in the season and we're disappointed we've let the fans down. We only had a fit group of 18 we brought today but that's not an excuse, it's just the facts of what's going on."


Britain's Ellie Downie rounded off her impressive European Gymnastics Championships with silver on the floor.

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The 17-year-old finished with four medals in Romania after an all-around gold, vault silver and bars bronze.
"I've hit 12 out of 12 routines and to come away with four medals is absolutely crazy," she said.
British gymnasts leave the championships with six medals, after James Hall won all-around bronze and Courtney Tulloch took rings silver.
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Downie qualified for every final in Cluj and only failed to win a medal on the beam, where she finished fourth.
"I'm definitely very happy with these championships. It couldn't have gone much better for me," she added.
"I'm pretty knackered to be honest. Coming in to today was the most tired I've felt.
"But I think the crowd and adrenaline and what I'd done the last couple of days just pushed me on."
And she said the disappointment of missing out on a medal at the Rio Olympics had spurred her on.
"I took a break, came back and was just ready to go again," said Downie.
"I've worked so hard, I've pushed my fitness, and it's paid off here. I couldn't be happier."
Also on Sunday, Hall narrowly missed out on his second medal of the championships, coming fourth in a high-quality high bar final.
Elsewhere, Claudia Fragapane fell off the beam to finish eighth, while on the floor a big step-out left her in seventh.
Dom Cunningham placed sixth in the men's vault final.


Meet Sawyer and Everett Shay, two twins born just minutes apart in Arizona in the US.

But, as Sawyer arrived on New Year's Eve at 23:50, and Everett at 12:01 on New Year's Day, they were born in two different years!
Mum Holly said that their arrival had been a "perfect birth."
Husband Brandon added: "Everett was stubborn, hanging on until after midnight."
He said: "I think it's mostly going to be Sawyer teasing Everett over him being the eldest."


The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says it is concerned by the approval by Uruguayan MPs of a bill which would legalise marijuana.

The INCB says the law would "be in complete contravention to the provisions of the international drug treaties to which Uruguay is party".
Under the new law, the state would assume control of growing and selling cannabis to registered users.
The bill still needs to be passed by Uruguay's senate before becoming law.
The INCB is an independent body of experts established by the United Nations to monitor countries' compliance with international drug treaties.
In a statement released just hours after the bill was passed in Uruguay's House of Representatives, the INCB said that such a law would be in "complete contravention" of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, which bans the sale of cannabis for non-medical use.
It says that, if adopted, it "might have serious consequences for the health and welfare of he population and for the prevention of cannabis abuse among the youth".
The Uruguayan government argues that by bringing the sale of cannabis under state control, it will remove profits from drug dealers and divert users from harder drugs.
The bill was approved by 50 of the 96 MPs present in the House of Representatives following a fierce 13-hour debate in the capital, Montevideo.
The supporters of the measure argued that the fight against drugs and drug trafficking had failed, and the country needed "new alternatives".
"The regulation is not to promote consumption; consumption already exists," said Sebastian Sabini of the governing centre-left Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition, which has a majority of one in the lower house.
Marijuana use has reportedly doubled in Uruguay over the past years. An estimated 22 tonnes of marijuana are being sold in the country annually, according to Uruguay's National Drugs Committee.
But Gerardo Amarilla of the opposition National Party said the government was "playing with fire" given the health risks he said were linked to marijuana use.
The bill will now go to the Senate, where it is expected to be voted on in October. As the left-wing government has a majority in the Senate, the bill is likely to be approved and could become law before the end of the year.
However, opposition politicians have said that even if the law makes it through the senate, they will launch a petition to have it overturned.
A survey carried out before the vote by polling organisation Cifra suggested 63% of Uruguayans opposed the bill.
The INCB said it was interested in "maintaining a dialogue with the Government of Uruguay on this issue".
It also expressed its regret that the government "refused to receive an INCB mission before the draft law was submitted to Parliament for deliberation".
The vote comes amid fierce debate about drug legalisation in Latin America.
A group of former presidents and influential social figures, including Brazil's Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo and Colombian ex-leader Cesar Gaviria, have called for marijuana to be legalised and regulated.
But only last week, Pope Francis criticised drug legalisation plans during a visit to Brazil.
Speaking at the inauguration of a clinic for drug addicts in Rio de Janeiro, he said it was "necessary to tackle the problems which are at the root of drug abuse, promoting more justice, educating the youth with the values that live in society, standing by those who face hardship and giving them hope for the future".


Injured servicemen and women have taken part in a fashion show aimed at helping them on their road to recovery.

8 October 2015 Last updated at 15:57 BST
The event took place at Help for Heroes Phoenix House Recovery Centre in Catterick.
Army veteran Chris Yates, who was injured in 2011 when a truck tailgate gave way and fell on him while he was serving with the Royal Engineers, said: "It's definitely a confidence booster. There's no way I would have gone out there a year ago, but Help for Heroes have given me that confidence."


Two teenage boys who drowned while swimming in the sea disappeared beneath the waves minutes before a lifeboat could reach them, an inquest has heard.

Yahye Omar Mohamed, 14, and Waseem Muflahi, 15, both from Birmingham, were on a trip to Barmouth, Gwynedd, on 7 August when they died.
A friend said they had been warned before they ventured into deeper water.
A conclusion of accidental death was recorded at Wednesday's inquest in Caernarfon.
Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said: "This is a classic situation of healthy active boys swimming in the sea, but not realising the dangers if they get caught in surf with strong undertow.
"I don't believe I can do anything to prevent further fatalities other than to warn people that there is no such thing as a safe beach, though the risks in Barmouth are no greater than anywhere else."
Mahdi Farah, a friend of the two boys who was rescued from the water, said the boys had been enjoying the water at a safe depth, but went out further than they should have.
"I went to give them a stern telling off," he said.
"But the strong waves were crashing down and they dragged us out. I was telling the boys to stay calm and battling to keep them upright.
"But every time I tried to swim to shore with them, the current kept dragging us back."
Harbourmaster Anthony Glyn told the hearing: "I saw three people in the water, scattered 50-100 metres apart, so I told two of my colleagues, beach wardens, to take a throw line and go into the water a small way to try and rescue the closest of the three.
"As soon as they did, another wave came and took my colleagues out too.
"They managed to get the throw line to Mahdi Farah and I called for urgent help from the coastguard and lifeboat.
"Then I saw one of the boys go under the water. As the lifeboat reached the line of the surf, the second boy disappeared."
The bodies of the boys were recovered on beaches north of Barmouth a few days later.


A UKIP candidate who resigned on Sunday has said he may have been a victim of "black arts" within the party.

Kerry Smith stepped down as a candidate for South Basildon and East Thurrock after the Mail on Sunday reported leaked phone calls in which he made offensive comments about gay people.
Mr Smith told the BBC that his comments were no worse than the language in the TV comedy Only Fools and Horses.
UKIP said he was no longer a party member and "can do what he likes".
In a recording obtained by the newspaper, Mr Smith made offensive remarks about gay people, other UKIP members and Chigwell in Essex.
In his first broadcast interview since resigning as a party member, Mr Smith said ambitious people in UKIP needed to be "very, very afraid" in case more secret recordings existed.
Speaking to the BBC's Tom Barton, he said his comments were no worse than the language in the TV comedy Only Fools and Horses, and said he had been "too politically incorrect".
After apologising "unreservedly" he added: "My language, for the record, was no worse than watching an old episode of Fools and Horses to be fair. I come from the East End, the word was never offensive and if you talked politically correct where I grew up you were battered for being a boffin." He said this was no excuse.
Mr Smith said the constituency had "become a real farce as far as the national party's concerned".
Before Mr Smith was chosen last week, the former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton withdrew from the selection process for the seat after a letter querying his expenses claims was leaked to the media.
A UKIP spokesman said of Mr Smith: "He's not a member of the party. He can do what he likes. We don't recognise that story."


Turkish police have detained at least 18 academics who signed a petition criticising military operations in the largely Kurdish south-east.

Fifteen were later released after questioning, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.
The academics are accused of engaging in "terrorist propaganda" and insulting the state.
But the detentions have rekindled concerns about freedom of expression in Turkey, analysts say.
The 15 released are lecturers at Kocaeli University in north-western Turkey, Anadolu reported. The three others are from Uludag University in Bursa province.
But the number of academics arrested could be higher, the Reuters news agency reported.
The declaration, signed by more than 1,000 academics in Turkey and abroad, calls on the government to halt "massacres" in the south-east.
The signatories stated that they refused to be "a party to the crime" and called for the resumption of peace efforts with the rebels.
The document was prompted by a Turkish government offensive against the outlawed separatist group Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, that includes military operations and curfews.
But President Erdogan accused those who signed the document - including renowned international linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky - of engaging in "terrorist propaganda" on behalf of the PKK.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies and has fought a 30-year separatist insurgency in south-eastern Turkey that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Mr Erdogan accused the academics of being biased against the state and denounced them for failing to condemn rebel violence. He urged the judiciary to take action against their "treachery".
The Turkish opposition and the US ambassador to Turkey criticised prosecutors' orders to investigate and allow home searches of academics after Mr Erdogan's remarks.
US ambassador John Bass warned of the "pressure having a chilling effect on legitimate political discourse across Turkish society regarding the sources and solutions to the ongoing violence".
There have been repeated clashes between PKK separatists and the Turkish army in recent months, and the violence has recently escalated.
On Thursday a car bomb which the authorities said was planted by the rebels detonated outside a police headquarters in Cinar district. Six people were killed.
The government has imposed a series of curfews in the south-east while militants have erected barricades, dug trenches and used explosives to keep the authorities away.
Since August, human rights activists say 170 civilians have lost their lives in areas under curfew and thousands have been displaced, but Turkish officials have denied that the offensive has endangered or killed civilians.
The hashtag #1128katil (1,128 killers) was trending in Turkey on Thursday, particularly among government and nationalist supporters, apparently in reference to the academics.


A six-year-old girl who went missing when a man jumped into her father's car and drove away with her inside has been found safe and well, police said.

The child was in the vehicle when her father met an unknown man to sell the car in Leyton High Road, north-east London, at about 18:30 BST.
The man, described as Asian, aged in his 30s and with short dark hair, jumped into the car and drove away.
Met Police said the girl was found at about 21:00. No arrests have been made.


Jose Mourinho says he wants to rest key players for Chelsea's trip to Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday.

The Blues are still in the title race with three games left but Mourinho wants to focus on the second leg of his side's Champions League semi-final with La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.
Media playback is not supported on this device
However, he says the decision to rest certain players may not be his to make.
"I can't decide by myself," said the Blues boss. "I'm just the manager. I have to listen to the club."
Chelsea's 2-1 defeat by Sunderland last weekend means even a win at Anfield might not be enough to stop Liverpool from winning their first title in 24 years.
However, Manchester City, who have a game in hand over Chelsea and Liverpool, can still win the title on goal difference if they win their remaining four fixtures and Liverpool lose a game.
When told that resting players against Liverpool might not please City, Mourinho said: "I think I will do it, but we have to speak internally."
After losing captain John Terry and goalkeeper Petr Cech to injury in Tuesday's 0-0 draw against Atletico Madrid, Mourinho believes next week's return leg at Stamford Bridge is the more important fixture.
Frank Lampard and John Mikel Obi are suspended for the second leg of the semi-final, so are likely to feature against Liverpool.
Fellow midfielders Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah also cannot play in Europe because they are cup-tied, so could play at Anfield.
Mourinho also thinks the game at Anfield should have been moved to Saturday from Sunday to help his side's European chances.
He suggested Atletico Madrid had been aided by the Spanish authorities, although they play Valencia in La Liga on Sunday afternoon.
"We represent English football and we are the only English team that is in European competition," said Mourinho, who feels the Premier League could have done more to help them. "We ask, ask and asked again to play on the Saturday."


The Royal Mail has painted a postbox gold in the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames - in recognition of its medal winning rowing club.

The town is home to the prestigious Leander Club, which has trained more than 100 Olympic medal-winning rowers.
Prime Minister David Cameron previously said the plan was a "very good idea".
Royal Mail spokesman Simon Fellman said: "We're delighted to do it and we're pleased so many people are delighted about it."
The Royal Mail has painted more than 50 postboxes gold following Team GB's gold medal haul at London 2012.
Originally it said it was only painting them in "winners' home towns, or towns with which they are closely associated".
Town mayor Elizabeth Hodgkin said: "We are the home of rowing... I feel very excited about it.
"I think it's wonderful news, it's a great thing for the town."
Mr Fellman said: "It's almost like the torch has come again. It's a piece of the Olympics coming back to people's doorsteps.
"The support for the boxes, it's kind of like the new tourist attraction. It's fantastic and I think people have really taken it to their hearts."
The Henley-on-Thames postbox was painted on Friday.
The town is holding a victory bus parade for more than 24 Olympians on 25 August, along with a civic reception.


Emmanuel Macron has promised to restore France's global standing, as he was inaugurated as the country's youngest president at the age of 39.

At an elaborate ceremony at the Élysée Palace in Paris, he said his presidency would "give the French back the confidence to believe in themselves".
He vowed to see the EU "reformed and relaunched" during his time in office.
He takes over from François Hollande, whose five-year term was plagued by high unemployment figures.
Mr Macron was proclaimed France's new president a week after his resounding victory over the National Front's Marine le Pen, with 66% of the vote in the run-off poll.
The former investment banker, who had never contested an election before and only formed his centrist movement a year ago, has vowed to shake up the country's political order and reinvigorate its economy.
Tight security was in place across Paris for the ceremony at the president's official residence, with hundreds of extra police on patrol.
France has been under a state of emergency since terror attacks in 2015 and a large section of the city centre was closed to traffic all morning.
During his inaugural address on Sunday, President Macron pledged to restore the confidence of the French people in their country's future.
"The division and fractures in our society must be overcome," said the centrist politician.
"The world and Europe need more than ever France, and a strong France, which speaks out loudly for freedom and solidarity," he declared.
He said he would convince the people that "the power of France is not declining - that we are on the brink of a great renaissance".
Speaking later during a visit to the capital's town hall, President Macron praised the way Parisians had responded to terror attacks.
He said that rather than hide behind barricades, many had opened their doors and offered help "because the face of Paris is the face of France, that of a living fraternity".
He also promised to strongly support the city's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.
He was presented with a chain of office once worn by Napoleon I, as a symbol of his position as Grand Master of the Legion of Honour (a title usually given to the leader of France).
Before the inauguration ceremony began, he spent nearly an hour with his predecessor, who handed him the country's nuclear codes. It was Mr Hollande who launched the new president's political career, appointing him first as adviser and later economy minister.
Despite historic low approval ratings, the former president tweeted after leaving the palace: "I leave a country in a much better state than I found it."
It was interesting to note how many "re-" words Emmanuel Macron used in his address. There was "re-formulate",  "re-invent", "re-mould", "re-juvenate", "re-launch". And of course "re-naissance".
It was all intended to "re"-enforce the message that this presidency will be one of  newness, youth and optimism.
Mr Macron is one of nature's optimists. Francois Hollande - the man from whose hands he took the reins of power - said that when Mr Macron worked for him, he "radiated joy". An almost preternaturally sunny demeanour, combined with his winning way with words, has been the new president's magic formula.
But to hold presidential office is to walk a road of thorns. Rarely is there good news to smile at. Success - if it comes at all - may only be appreciated years later. Mr Macron's "re-splendent" personality is about to tested like never before.
At 39, Mr Macron is France's youngest leader since Napoleon and the first to be born after 1958, when a presidential system was set up.
His En Marche political movement was formed just last year and as a new party - La République En Marche - will be fielding candidates across France in June's parliamentary elections.
He has promised to "work for everyone" and sees his programme as straddling both left and right.
Mr Macron's first week in office will be busy. He heads for Berlin on Monday to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and to demonstrate his commitment to the European Union.
He is also expected to name a prime minister on Monday morning.
Mr Macron faces major challenges including high unemployment, especially among France's young, and low growth.
He says his main aims are to boost investment and to set up a "new growth model" that increases social mobility and helps the environment.


Thousands of engineering drawings from an ironworks dating back more than 200 years have been bought by the West Glamorgan Archive.

Neath Abbey Ironworks made steam locomotives in the early days of the railways as well as ship and mine engines.
The archive was given first refusal to buy the collection.
Archivist Kim Collis said: "It is a rare survival from across a large time period of the industrial revolution."
The foundry was built in 1792 and leased to the Quaker firm of Fox and Company, which was based in Falmouth, Cornwall.
The ironworks' heyday coincided with the development of the railways and steamships - and the opening up of the coalfields across south Wales.
Swansea and Neath also became important world centres for metals.
The ironworks produced locomotives, ship engines, machinery for gas works and pumping and winding engines for mines until it finally closed in the mid 1880s.
The collection includes more than 8,000 engineering drawings for work dating back to the late 18th Century.
Ms Collis added: "While much of the trade was local to south Wales, orders came in not only from the rest of the United Kingdom but also for mining operations in Mexico and South America, reflecting the growth of British entrepreneurship in the western hemisphere."
She said the plans were detailed and finely drawn and would be an "invaluable resource" for people interested in the techniques of manufacturing and mining - and also transport and industrial history.
"The level of care taken in their execution reflects high standards of workmanship for which the foundry had a reputation," said Ms Collis.
The collection had been on deposit at the Swansea-based archive for more than two decades but the owner decided he wanted to sell.


Eight Welsh Labour MPs voted against the bill which will allow ministers to trigger Article 50 and leave the European Union.

In total, 52 Labour MPs voted against the bill at the third reading - five more than those who voted against it at second reading last week - but it went through by 494 votes to 122.
Wednesday's vote was the last stage before it goes to the House of Lords.
Prime Minister Theresa May wants formal Brexit talks by the end of March.
Ceredigion Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams, who voted against the bill, said: "Tonight MPs had the chance to amend the Tory Brexit bill to ensure that the British people had the final say on the terms of the deal at the end of the government's negotiating process.
"Instead we saw MPs vote to give the government a blank cheque to pursue the most damaging Brexit possible."
The Labour MPs who voted against the bill included Swansea West MP Geraint Davies, who did not vote last week.
The other MPs were: Kevin Brennan, Chris Bryant, Ann Clwyd, Stephen Doughty, Madeleine Moon, Owen Smith and Jo Stevens.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he understood the difficulties the vote presented some of his MPs but said they had been ordered to back the Article 50 because the party would not "block Brexit".
All three Plaid Cymru MPs voted against the bill.
Plaid Cymru's Brexit spokesperson Jonathan Edwards, MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said the party would "continue to fight tooth and nail for Wales' interests as the bill moves through the House of Lords".
Brexit Secretary David Davis hailed the "historic vote", adding: "It is now time for everyone, whichever way they voted in the referendum, to unite to make a success of the important task at hand for our country."


Buckingham Palace is to undergo a 10-year refurbishment costing the taxpayer £369m, the Treasury has announced.

The Queen will remain in residence during the work, to begin next April.
Ageing cables, lead pipes, wiring and boilers will be replaced, many for the first time in 60 years, amid fears about potential fire and water damage.
Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Queen's Household, said phased works offered the "best value for money" while keeping the palace running.
The Royal Trustees, who include the prime minister and chancellor, recommended that the works be funded by a temporary increase in the Sovereign Grant.
Profits from the independent property business Crown Estates go to the Treasury, which in turn gives 15% of the sum to the monarch in the form of the Sovereign Grant, which this year totalled nearly £43m.
The trustees say the grant should rise to 25% of the profits for the repairs. This would require MPs' approval.
BBC royal correspondent Sarah Campbell
Away from the splendour of the state rooms, Buckingham Palace shows its age.
It is striking while walking through the back corridors that the overall look is a little shabby.
The refurbishment is clearly long overdue and it appears the building is now at risk from electrics, plumbing and heating barely updated since the 1950s.
Questions will be asked over why the palace has been allowed to get to such a state and whether the enormous estimated costs could have been reduced if services had been regularly updated.
At a briefing on Friday, palace officials were clearly conscious that in times of austerity such expenditure needs to be justified, and they were at pains to do so.
When asked how they thought the public would react, one said they did not know but hoped "it will appeal to their sense of nationhood".
775 rooms
78 bathrooms
1,514 doors
760 windows
100 miles of electrical cabling
20 miles of heating pipework
Mr Johnstone-Burt said that by making the investment now, "we can avert a much more costly and potentially catastrophic building failure in the years to come".
The Treasury said an "urgent overhaul" of the palace was needed to prevent the risk of fire, flood and damage to both the building and the priceless Royal Collection of art belonging to the nation.
Pointing to the damage Windsor Castle had suffered from a fire in 1992, the Treasury said: "The restoration took more than five years, and it is estimated that similar damage to Buckingham Palace could cost up to £250m for a single wing."
According to the Royal Household, the palace's boilers are more than 33 years old and spare parts for them are difficult to source.
Much of the wiring is considered to have the "very real risk of fire and failure", while the majority of the mechanical and electrical systems are at least 40 years old with failure an "ever increasing risk", it said.
Campaign group Republic, which wants the abolition of the monarchy,  said the refurbishment was "an indictment on the Queen's scandalous mismanagement of royal finances over six decades".
It added: "MPs have repeatedly called on the palace to fund repairs by opening up to tourists all year round and they've refused".
As Her Majesty's administrative headquarters, the Queen spends a third of the year hosting events at Buckingham Palace.
When in town, she holds weekly audiences with the prime minister, and every year welcomes more than 50,000 people as guests to state banquets, dinners, receptions and garden parties.
The palace has 775 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms.
It has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837, playing host to a stream of historical figures, including author Charles Dickens, the US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and John F Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi - who wore a loin cloth and sandals to tea with King George V - Neil Armstrong and Nelson Mandela.
The occupied royal palaces are held in trust for the nation by the Queen but the cost of maintaining them falls on the government.
The works will be carried out on a phased basis, completing one wing at a time, awarding contracts separately for each phase, aiming to minimise the financial and practical risks, the Royal Household said.
In 2014, MPs criticised the Royal Household for mismanaging its finances.
A report by the Public Accounts Committee said the Royal Household was "not looking after nationally important heritage properties adequately", saying that in March 2012, 39% of the royal estate was "below what the household deemed to be an acceptable condition".
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said: "We will ensure every penny spent achieves the greatest value for money".
He said it was only right to ensure Buckingham Palace was made "fit for purpose" for the future.
"Tourists are drawn to this country because of our culture, heritage and royal legacy, and when they visit they spend billions of pounds and support thousands of jobs," he said.
"We must ensure that the special architectural and historic nature of some of our greatest buildings are protected for future generations."
Mr Johnstone-Burt said the programme, once completed, was designed to extend the palace's working life by a further 50 years.


Passengers on Southern railway are facing more than 24 hours of disruption due to a strike by conductors over their role and driver-only trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will walk out from 11:00 BST, with services being reduced from 07:30 BST.
Regional organiser Paul Cox said it had been left with "no alternative".
Southern said many routes would have no services at all and queuing systems would be in operation at stations.
Live updates on the strike
In a message to passengers, Southern said: "You may have a long wait before you are able to board a train. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee to get you to your destination."
Southern, which is owned by Govia Thameslink Railway and operates in Sussex, Surrey and parts of London, Kent and Hampshire, plans changes to the role of conductors which will see responsibility for operating the doors switched to the driver.
It said there would be no job losses or cuts in salary and the changes would make staff more visible.
The RMT said passenger numbers had "increased dramatically" and conductors were "the eyes and ears preventing a major tragedy on the platforms and carriages".
Mr Cox said the union had offered to discuss changes to the role "that would retain the operational and safety commitment from the conductors, but it fell on deaf ears".
The Conservative MP for Wealden, Nus Ghani, told BBC Sussex: "The changes proposed, driver-only-operated trains, are happening on a third of the network already.
"I do not remember the last time I got on a train and there was someone to help me physically, on or off. Drivers can manage the doors," she added.
Southern's passenger services director, Alex Foulds, said the strike was "totally unnecessary".
He warned passengers to "check before they travel".
"Some routes will have a reduced service, some routes will have no train at all, and some trains will stop operating at about 6pm," he said.
Two further 24-hour strikes are planned at the same time on 10 and 12 May.


Burton Albion players will support boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink if he leaves to take the vacant Queens Park Rangers job, says defender Damien McCrory.

QPR have made an official approach for the Dutchman, with League One leaders Burton now in negotiations with the Championship side.
"We are hopeful that we can keep hold of him," McCrory told BBC Radio Derby.
"But none of the lads will hold grudges against him if he does decide to move on because it is great opportunity."
In the 12 months since taking over at Burton, Hasselbaink has guided the club to promotion to England's third tier for the first time in its history, where they now sit top after 20 games following Tuesday's 2-1 win over Millwall.
McCrory said former Chelsea and Leeds United striker has been candid about QPR's interest, but admits players do not know if he will remain in charge of Saturday's trip to Gillingham,
"Everyone knows what is going on with the speculation about the gaffer," McCrory said.
"He is saying how it is to us and let us know that something may happen or may not happen. He will be in on Thursday either way.
"All the players want him to be in charge of the Gillingham game. But I couldn't really say. You never know in football."
Midfielder Mark Duffy said he would be "gutted" if Hasselbaink was lured away from the Pirelli Stadium.
"He has done a great job here and we have something good going, we are sitting nicely top of the league," he said.


The ashes of ex-Coventry City manager and chairman Jimmy Hill have been scattered at the club's stadium.

The ceremony was held at the Ricoh Arena's new memorial garden before the club's last home match of the season against Sheffield United.
The former TV pundit and Professional Footballers' Association chairman, who lived in Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, died in December.
The dean of Coventry Cathedral opened the garden and led the ceremony.
The Very Reverend John Whitcombe said a band played ahead of the ashes being scattered.
The garden will be open for fans to scatters the ashes of loved ones who were Coventry City fans.
A tribute service was held at the city's cathedral in February which drew hundreds of people.
Hill joined Coventry City as manager in 1961, leaving six years later shortly after winning promotion to the First Division for the first time.
The former Match of the Day presenter was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008 and died on 19 December, aged 87.


Hands up who thought Mercury was just a dull rock circling close to the Sun?

The latest data returned by Nasa's Messenger probe shows that view couldn't be further from the truth.
In among a raft of papers published in this week's edition of the journal Science, researchers reveal strange hollows that pock Mercury's surface.
Irregular in shape, these depressions seem to form in the bright deposits that have been excavated where meteorites have impacted the surface.
The Messenger team cannot be sure what has caused them, but on Mars similar features are also known to exist.
In the case of the Red Planet, they are probably a consequence of evaporating carbon dioxide ice.
As the ice is driven off in the warmth of the Sun, it leaves a hole in the ground that produces a kind "Swiss cheese" terrain.
On Mercury, there is no carbon dioxide ice, so it would have to be some other kind of volatile material in play.
"It could be that there is some component in Mercury rocks that is unstable when it is exposed to the environment at the surface," said David Blewett of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
"As a result of this instability, portions of the surface could degrade, leading to collapse and erosion and thus forming the depressions."
Clues to what those materials might be come from Messenger's X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers.
These instruments are detecting relatively high abundances of elements such as sulphur and potassium in surface materials.
If they are present, other elements which do not particularly like high temperatures are probably there as well.
All of which poses new questions about the formation of Mercury.
There have been several models put forward to try to explain why the planet has an unusually large iron core.
Some scientists have argued that the planet must have been bigger in the past and that its outer-layers had simply evaporated away in the intense glare of the Sun; or that a number of giant impacts had stripped Mercury of its outer layers.
"But those [models] propose such high temperatures that all the volatiles would have been evaporated away, so they don't line up with our measurements of the potassium and sulphur abundances," said APL's Patrick Peplowski.
"The exciting thing about our observation of volatiles at the surface of Mercury is that it rules out most theories for the planet's formation."
Peplowski now favours a model in which Mercury accreted a lot of metal-rich meteorites early in its evolution.
One aspect of Mercury is now settled, however - the scale of the volcanism that built its smooth northern plains.
Before Messenger got into orbit, there had been only brief glimpses of the region which covers more than 6% of the planet's surface.
Now, high-resolution mapping has identified buried "ghost" craters that were overwhelmed by the floods of molten rock welling up from inside Mercury.
"Taking the 6% area of Mercury covered by these northern high latitude smooth plains, and an estimated average depth of one kilometre, gives us a volume of almost 5 million cubic kilometres of lava for these deposits," said James Head, from Brown University.
"This is enough lava to cover the City of Washington DC to a depth of over 26,000 km, which is about 72 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station."
There are no volcanoes visible in the imagery, but Professor Head and his colleagues have identified huge vents just off the plains that might explain how all the lava came to be released.
"It looks like there was a large low in the northern high latitudes that when the lava came out, it just filled the low up like a bathtub," he told BBC News.
Messenger is half way through its primary orbital mission at Mercury, and has another six months of observations to make before it would require additional funding to extend operations.
The request for an extended mission has already been put before Nasa officials and, given the results coming back from the probe, it is hard to believe that request would be turned down.
"Ten years ago you might have thought Mercury was a boring place.  Now we're getting all this data from Messenger, the planet has become a truly fascinating place," said David Rothery, an Open University-based British scientist working on Europe's soon-to-launch Mercury mission, BepiColombo.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk


Plans to create two huge marine sanctuaries in Antarctica have failed for a third time, after Russia again headed nations which blocked the bids.

The meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Australia had sought to protect the Ross Sea and an area off East Antarctica from exploitation.
But delegates from 24 countries, plus the EU, failed to reach a consensus.
Environmental groups called it called it a "dark day" for the Antarctic.
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is made up of countries with an interest in Antarctica.
The continent and its waters are home to more than 10,000 species, including most of the world's seabirds, penguins and whales.
CCAMLR includes Australia, the US, China and Russia, and the European Union among its members. Any decisions taken require consensus among all parties.
Plans for a marine reserve in the Ross Sea - a deep bay on the Pacific Ocean side of the Antarctic - have been under discussion for a decade, and have been blocked on several previous occasions, with the main sticking point restrictions on fishing.
According to the environmental advocacy group, Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, the Ross Sea comprises 3.3% of the area of the Southern Ocean, but "it provides habitat for significant populations of many animals, including 38% of the world's Adelie penguins, 26% of Emperor penguins, more than 30% of Antarctic petrels, 6% of Antarctic minke whales, and perhaps more than 30% of 'Ross Sea' killer whales".
"Moreover, it has the richest diversity of fishes in the high latitude Southern Ocean, including seven species found nowhere else."
A revised proposal by the US and New Zealand - reducing the scale of the Ross Sea reserve by 40% to about 1.25m sq km (482,000 sq miles) - had been thought more likely to succeed at the Commission's meeting in Hobart.
Also on the table in Hobart was a proposal to create a protected zone of 1.6m sq km (618,000 sq miles) off East Antarctica.
The two zones were intended to conserve parts of the Southern Ocean from fishing, oil exploration and other commercial exploitation.
But they were both blocked by Russia and Ukraine, while China withdrew support for the East Antarctica proposal.
"It seems pretty clear that a small group of countries led by Russia wanted to wreck the agreement," said Steve Campbell, director of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance which campaigns for protecting the Antarctic seas.
Andrea Kavanagh, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts' Southern Ocean sanctuaries project, also expressed dismay at the outcome:
"This is a dark day not just for the Antarctic, but for the world's oceans," she said.
"Protecting the Southern Ocean has far-reaching consequences for the world's oceans and all those who rely on them for food, jobs, and a multitude of other services.
"Three-quarters of all marine life is maintained by a Southern Ocean current that pulls nutrient-rich waters from the deep ocean to the surface and then around the world.
There was no immediate statement from Russia.
Environmentalist say they hope agreement on the marine protected areas can be reached by CCAMLR next year.


The former boss of government communications agency GCHQ has warned over the use of biometric data in mobile phones and devices.

Sir John Adye said he had security concerns over methods like fingerprint recognition used in Apple's iPhone 6 and other devices to check identity.
"I don't know what happens to my personal data when I use it on a smartphone," he told MPs.
Apple has defended the security and privacy of its systems.
Sir John, who headed GCHQ between 1989 and 1996, chairs a company which is developing biometric technology for identity recognition.
He said the increasing use of biometrics was a positive step but warned that it was not clear enough what was happening to people's data.
"If you go to an ATM and put in your credit or debit card, that system is supervised by the bank in some way," he said in evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee, which is examining the use of biometric technology.
"But when you're using your smartphone... there's no physical supervision of the system."
"You need to design security methods... which are going to be strong to protect the interests of the individual who is using the phone and the relying party at the other end... the bank or whoever it is, who is providing a service to them."
Sir John singled out the Apple iPhone 6 which allows users to make payments and access services using a fingerprint.
"You can now use your iPhone 6 to make payments using biometrics on the internet and you've got to tick various boxes before you do so, but how many people are actually going read through all those boxes properly and understand what they mean when it goes in?"
"I think Apple has done some good things. They appear to have a good system at the moment for protecting their operating system so it's difficult for anyone outside to penetrate it and retrieve data from it.
"But how long will that last, because the criminals... are very inventive at finding ways in, and although you can protect it in that way on the device itself, what happens if the device is lost or stolen?"
Apple says it uses the most technologically advanced fingerprint security and puts security and privacy at the core of the "Apple Pay" system.
Sir John also called for more transparency in the way personal information may be passed on to third parties.
"I don't know, although I'm quite experienced in this area, what happens to my personal data when I use it on a smartphone for proving my identity. Is Google going to use that data to target advertising at me?  Is some other commercial company or maybe some hostile foreign government going to use it to target me in some other way? I don't know," he said.
Another witness, biometrics engineer Ben Fairhead, was asked about the risks that biometric data such as fingerprints could be faked.
"There's a whole science around anti-spoofing and all sorts of methods you can employ to work out 'Is this finger... made of flesh and is there blood pumping around it?,'" he told Labour MP, Pamela Nash.
But even this technology was open to "spurious results", he said. "If for example, you haven't got much blood flow to your fingers, maybe the system doesn't think your finger is alive."
"It still ends up being an arms race, or an arms, legs and fingers race, between you and the attackers," he said, adding that cybercriminals were adding iron filings to fake fingers to mirror the conductivity of human skin.
The committee also examined the increasing use of biometrics by governments, in border controls and public services.
MPs heard claims that there needed to be better oversight of the entire industry.


Three people, including two children, have died after their throats were slit by glass-coated strings used for flying kites on India's Independence Day.

Saanchi Goyal, 3, and Harry, 4, were looking out through the sunroof of their cars in different parts of Delhi when sharp strings slit their throats.
Zafar Khan, 22, died in the same manner when he was riding his motorbike.
Many Indians fly kites to celebrate festivals and important occasions like the Independence Day.
A policeman in Delhi also suffered injuries from a sharp string, locally known as manja, on Monday.
The Delhi government has now banned the use of sharp strings to fly kites and promised to run campaigns to educate people about the dangers of using such strings.
Most people use glass-coated strings to bring down competitors' kites, but the tactic also ends up injuring and killing people.
Similar strings killed a five-year-old boy in 2015 in the northern town of Moradabad, and a five-year-old girl died in Jaipur in 2014.


Stewart Downing's superb strike sent Middlesbrough through to the FA Cup fifth round with victory over League Two strugglers Accrington Stanley.

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The hosts wasted numerous chances at the Riverside before Downing fired a left-footed shot into the top corner from 25 yards in the 69th minute.
Substitute Cristhian Stuani missed an open goal in added time.
Sean McConville went closest for Stanley, who are 20th in League Two, but they could not force an equaliser.
A nervy Boro had failed to capitalise on their dominance until Downing's goal, with Patrick Bamford missing two clear chances from close range on his first start for the club since joining from Chelsea.
Stanley's Sean Clare forced Dimitrios Konstantopoulos into a solid save in the first half, before McConville headed wide when unmarked on 83 minutes.
The visitors rarely threatened otherwise, with Marek Rodak keeping them in contention, making fine saves to deny Rudy Gestede and Adama Traore, the latter's effort falling to Stuani, who shot high over the bar with Rodak off his line.
Defeat means Stanley are yet to progress beyond the fourth round of the FA Cup, while Aitor Karanka's Boro secured their second win in five games in 2017, both in this competition.
Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka said: "The most important thing with these games is to just get through to the next round - we had chances to score more but sometimes it's difficult against these sides.
"Accrington Stanley were really organised and kept fighting to the end so I'm really pleased.
"Stewart Downing deserved to score, it was an amazing goal. I told him at half-time that he was one of the best players on the pitch but to score a goal is always best."
Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman said: "A lot of other club have played their kids - we can't ask Middlesbrough to play a weakened side so it's a testament to how well we've played that it was only 1-0.
"The financial aspect is great so a replay would've been fantastic.
"But now we've got to show the same heart and spirit in every league game from now until the end of the season."
Middlesbrough face West Brom in the Premier League at the Riverside on Tuesday. Accrington Stanley host fellow strugglers Notts County at the Crown Ground on Saturday, 4 February.


Sprinter Tyson Gay says he should not be described as a drugs cheat.

The American, 32, served a one-year ban after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid in 2013.
But he says he didn't cheat, insisting: "If I would have made a decision to intentionally do something to hurt the sport, I wouldn't have come back."
Gay will face Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell, who have also failed drug tests, in the men's 100m at Thursday's Diamond League in Lausanne.
"When you put key words or a syringe by somebody's name, it manipulates someone's mind to believe you intentionally tried to do something and get away with it," added Gay. "That wasn't the case."
Gay was suspended after reportedly admitted using a cream containing testosterone and human growth hormone.
He was banned for one year, rather than the usual two, after providing the United States Anti-Doping Agency with evidence that allowed it to ban his former coach, Jon Drummond, for eight years.
Gay said he had put his "trust in someone and was let down".
Speaking to the BBC's World Service, he said: "If I could do everything all over again, I definitely would."
Six-time Olympic gold medal winner Usain Bolt said in April that Gay should have been banned for life.
But Gay, the joint second-fastest man ever over 100m and a former 100m and 200m world champion, is undeterred.
"You answer to yourself," said Gay, who returned last summer and ran 9.87 to become US champion last month.
"The true fans are understanding of what I've been through. For them to look up to me still, that means a lot."
Gay is up against compatriot Gatlin, who has served two doping bans, and Jamaican Powell, who served a six-month ban after failing a drugs test in 2013, in Lausanne on Thursday.
Gatlin has run the fastest 100m of the year - 9.74 seconds while Powell ran a season's best 9.81 at the Diamond League in Paris on Saturday.
US sprinter Mike Rodgers, who was banned for nine months after testing positive for a banned stimulant, will also run in Lausanne.
Bolt, 28, is currently sidelined with a pelvic injury a doubt for the World Championships in Beijing at the end of August.
Organisers of London's Anniversary Games - at the Olympic Stadium from 24-26 July - are hopeful the Jamaican will run at their event.


Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition in protest at a Glasgow hospital being renamed after the Queen.

The Govan hospital was originally known as the South Glasgow University Hospital and renamed the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital after being officially opened by the monarch.
PhD student John Beattie, 32, who started the petition, described the new name as "an affront to our democracy".
NHS Glasgow and Clyde said receiving the royal title was "an honour".
The 1,109-bed facility was built on the site of Southern General is one of the largest acute hospitals in the UK and started taking patients in April.
In text appearing alongside the online petition Mr Beattie writes: "We call on the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board to change the name of the new South Glasgow hospital.
"Naming the new hospital after a monarch is an affront to our democracy. The fundamental principle of democracy is the equality of all people.
"Considering the fundamental principle of monarchy is superiority of the monarch and their family over everyone else in society, we feel the naming of a public building after such a person is unacceptable."
On Monday the PhD student told Radio Scotland's John Beattie programme that he decided to start the petition after voicing his annoyance on social media that the hospital had been named after "such an unworthy person", and found that others agreed with him.
He said: "There is already a spinal injuries unit called the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and they've called this the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
"If you go all across Britain there are hospitals in London, Birmingham, Norfolk, and even all over the Commonwealth, so why do we need another one?"
Within two days the petition had garnered around 5,500 signatures. By Friday afternoon it was 500 short of the 10,000 name target.
He and others who have signed the petition are now calling for the hospital to be renamed after a prominent figure from science and politics, with Nobel Prize winner Alexander Fleming and Scottish political activist Mary Barbour among the most popular suggestions.
Mr Beattie said that while his campaign had not been positively received by all, the support the petition had received had far outweighed the negative comments.
He now plans to put the petition to his local MP in the hope that it will be passed on to the health secretary. The next stage, after that, will be to take his cause to the Scottish government directly.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the health board responsible for the Govan hospital, said: "It was an honour for our staff and patients to have the Queen officially open three magnificent new healthcare facilities which will benefit not only the people of Glasgow but the people of Scotland.
"It is also a privilege to be given the honour of royal title for these magnificent new buildings."


New Prime Minister Hisham Qandil's facial hair is stirring debate in a nation where beards have traditionally been viewed as a symbol of Islamist hardliners.

It used to be a sign of religious piety. Now it is a sign of political sway. A reminder of how things are evolving very fast in Egypt.
Over the past six decades, those who sported a beard in the Muslim-majority country were considered hardliners.
They were under constant surveillance by the state security police, which used to side with the regime, and it was unusual to see a bearded man in any high-profile post in state institutions, including the police and the media.
Today, Egypt has a bearded prime minister.
After weeks of anticipation, Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, himself bearded, surprised observers this week by assigning Hisham Qandil to form a new government.
The little-known technocrat served as the irrigation minister in the outgoing government of Kamal Ganzouri.
When first appointed in July 2011, Mr Qandil already stole the limelight for being the first ever minister to sport a beard.
At the time, many saw the bearded minister as a sign of positive change in Egypt, indicating that Islamists were no longer being "witch-hunted".
Now that Mr Qandil has been chosen as prime minister, however, his beard no longer seems all that welcome anymore - not after the rise of Islamists representing the new wave of political power in the Middle East.
Conventionally, wearing a beard is a practice by devout Muslim men who follow the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad to the letter.
But in Egypt, a country with long-standing secular traditions, many Muslim scholars do not view the beard as obligatory and frequently shave it off.
Social networking websites are flooded with sarcastic comments grilling Egypt's Islamist president for picking Qandil.
Some questioned if the only criterion for choosing the 50-year-old engineer by profession was the beard, which indicates his ideological leaning.
They accused Mursi of favouring Mr Qandil over high-profile figures who were tipped for the post, including Nobel laureates Mohamed ElBaradei and Ahmed Zewail.
"Only in Egypt is having a beard better than having a Nobel Prize," Hamdy Ibrahim said on Twitter.
Many voiced fears that the move foreshadows the Islamisation of Egypt.
"Lesson learnt: just grow a beard!" tweeted Ahmed Sarhan who used to be key member in the campaign of Mr Mursi's competitor in the presidential elections, Ahmed Shafiq.
Gamal Fahmy, a liberal journalist and political activist, says that the public debate on social networking websites is revealing.
"The Muslim Brotherhood managed to appease Americans and the West but they failed to appease the Egyptians," he told the BBC.
"Egyptians are afraid of Islamising their nation."
Mr Qandil's beard is also wading into the political battle between the Muslim Brotherhood, the once-banned group which now has one of its veteran leaders in the presidential palace, and rival political parties.
After assuming power, President Mursi promised to appoint a patriotic and independent figure as prime minister, someone not tied to any particular political wing - especially not the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.
But Brotherhood critics insist that Mr Qandil is affiliated with the Muslim group.
"It is not just a matter of appearance," says Fahmy, the liberal activist.
"Qandil belongs to political Islam. He is a respected figure, and he may not be involved in a political party, but he is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, at least mentally."
Others insist that, regardless of Mr Qandil's stance, his beard should not be portrayed as some sort of criminal charge.
"It is not a crime that he is wearing a beard. We should not be throwing accusations based only on appearance," Salah Abdel Maqsoud, a veteran journalist and political commentator, told the BBC.
"Let's just see what the man's choices for ministers and aides are going to be. Let's see how he is going to tackle the endless challenges awaiting him. It is a very heavy legacy."
Mr Qandil's appointment is likely to disappoint people in business circles, who had hoped for someone with extensive economic expertise to breathe life into the country's crippled economy.
In his first official speech, Mr Qandil - who is also Egypt's youngest prime minister - vowed his cabinet would be made up of technocrats.
He also pledged to focus on the promises President Mursi made in his 100-day programme, on securing bread, fuel and cleanliness, easing traffic congestion, and ending the security breakdown afflicting Egypt since the 2011 revolution.
"You will hear this from me quite often in the coming period," Mr Qandil said in his televised statement.
"We have to put in so much effort and work very hard to achieve the goals of the revolution. There is just so much to do."


The world's biggest personal computer-maker, Lenovo, said first-quarter earnings rose 64% to $173m (£132m), beating market expectations.

The Chinese firm said its PC business had delivered "strong profits" despite a slowdown in the overall market.
However, revenue fell by 6% from a year earlier to $10.1bn in the three months to June.
Lenovo attributed that to the "challenging" environment and the decline in China's currency.
The Chinese firm has been aggressively cutting costs and investing in new growth areas such as cloud computing.
"Our PC business delivered strong profits and our smartphone business stabilised compared to last quarter," Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said in a statement.
"Although the macro-economy and our industries remain challenging, causing a decline in our revenue, we significantly improved our profit year-on-year through innovative products and strong execution," he said.


They have been described as the world's most persecuted people.

Rejected by the country they call home and unwanted by its neighbours, the Rohingya are impoverished, virtually stateless and have been fleeing Myanmar in droves and for decades.
In recent months, tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh amid a military crackdown on insurgents in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
They have told horrifying stories of rapes, killings and house burnings, which the government of Myanmar - formerly Burma - has claimed are "false" and "distorted".
Activists have condemned the lack of a firm international response. Some have described the situation as South East Asia's Srebrenica, referring to the July 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were meant to be under UN protection - a dark stain on Europe's human rights record.
Tun Khin, from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, says Rohingyas are suffering "mass atrocities" perpetrated by security forces in the northern part of Rakhine state.
A counter-insurgency campaign was launched after nine border policemen near Maungdaw were killed in a militant attack in early October, but the Rohingya say they are being targeted indiscriminately.
The BBC cannot visit the locked-down area to verify the claims and the Myanmar government has vociferously denied alleged abuses.
But UN officials have told the BBC that the Rohingya are being collectively punished for militant attacks, with the ultimate goal being ethnic cleansing.
The Rohingya are one of Myanmar's many ethnic minorities and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations.
But Myanmar's government denies them citizenship and sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - a common attitude among many Burmese.
The predominantly Buddhist country has a long history of communal mistrust, which was allowed to simmer, and was at times exploited, under decades of military rule.
About one million Muslim Rohingya are estimated to live in western Rakhine state, where they are a sizable minority. An outbreak of communal violence there in 2012 saw more than 100,000 people displaced, and tens of thousands of Rohingya remain in decrepit camps where travel is restricted.
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya already live in Bangladesh, having fled there over many decades.
Since a dramatic Rohingya exodus from Myanmar in 2015, the political party of Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has taken power in a historic election, the first to be openly contested in 25 years.
But little has changed for the Rohingya and Ms Suu Kyi's failure to condemn the current violence is an outrage, say some observers.
"I'm not saying there are no difficulties,'' she told Singapore's Channel NewsAsia in December. "But it helps if people recognise the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them so that everything seems worse than it really is.''
Her failure to defend the Rohingya is extremely disappointing, said Tun Khin, who for years had supported her democracy activism.
The question of whether she has much leverage over the military - which still wields great power and controls the most powerful ministries - is a separate one, he said.
"The point is that Aung San Suu Kyi is covering up this crime perpetrated by the military."
But others say international media fail to understand the complex situation in Rakhine state, where Rohingya Muslims live alongside the mostly Buddhist Rakhine people, who are the state's dominant ethnic group.
Khin Mar Mar Kyi, a Myanmar researcher at Oxford University, told the South China Morning Post that the Rakhine were the "most marginalised minority" in Myanmar but were ignored by Western media, which she said displayed a "one-sided humanitarian passion".
Other researchers like Ronan Lee of Australia's Deakin University disagree with this argument, noting that while the Rakhine also face deprivation, "the solution when faced with massive rights violations is not to announce that someone else is worse off".
In her recent media comments, Ms Suu Kyi said Rakhine Buddhists "are worried about the fact that they are shrinking as a Rakhine population percentage-wise" and said she wanted to improve relations between the two communities.
A special Myanmar government committee appointed to investigate the ongoing violence in Rakhine state said in an interim report in early January that it had so far  found no evidence to support claims of genocide against the Rohingya, nor to back up widespread rape allegations.
The report made no mention of claims that security forces had been killing civilians. Observers had, in any case, not had high hopes of a credible or independent investigation from the committee, which is headed by former general and current Vice-President Myint Swe.
Read more - "The Lady": A profile of Aung San Suu Kyi
South East Asian countries generally don't criticise each other about their internal affairs. It's a key principle of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
But the current situation has seen some strident criticism from Myanmar's Muslim-majority neighbours, along with protests.  Indonesian police even say they have foiled an IS-linked bomb plot targeting the Myanmar embassy.
On 4 December, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak questioned Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize, given her inaction.
"The world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place. The world cannot just say 'look, it is not our problem'. It is our problem," he told thousands at a rally in Kuala Lumpur in support of the Rohingya.
His comments followed a call from Malaysia's youth and sports minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, for Asean to review Myanmar's membership over the "unacceptable" violence.
Some question the timing of the comments, given the unpopular Mr Razak is gearing up for re-election.
"What we want is both talk and action to really help the Rohingya, not just ministers posturing to gain domestic political points," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.
In Bangladesh, which borders Rakhine state, Amnesty International says hundreds of fleeing Rohingya have been detained and forcibly returned to an uncertain fate since October - a practice it says should end. Bangladesh does not recognise the Rohingya as refugees.
Read more: Bangladesh presses Myanmar on Rohingya
Leading regional newspapers have condemned Asean's inaction, with Thailand's The Nation describing it as an "accessory to murder and mayhem".
A meeting of Asean foreign ministers to discuss the crisis was held on 19 December in Myanmar's capital, Yangon, but was dismissed as "largely an act of political theatre" by the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights grouping.
Indonesia's ambassador to London, Rizal Sukma, told the BBC in December that a comprehensive approach was needed.
He said an investigation with regional participation should be launched and that his country stood ready to participate if any such commission was to be formed.
A UN spokeswoman in 2009 described the Rohingya as "probably the most friendless people in the world".
The UN human rights office recently said for a second time this year that abuses suffered by them could amount to crimes against humanity. It also said that it regretted that the government had failed to act on a number of recommendations it had provided, including lifting restrictions of movement on the Rohingya.
It has called for an investigation into the recent allegations of rights abuses, as well as for humanitarian access to be given.
The UN's refugee agency says Myanmar's neighbours should keep their borders open if desperate Rohingya once again take to rickety boats to seek refuge in their countries, as happened in early 2015.
Spokeswoman Vivian Tan said now would be a good time to set up a regional task force that had been proposed to co-ordinate a response to any such movements.
Read more: Kofi Annan downplays Myanmar genocide claims
Separately, former UN-Secretary General Kofi Annan is heading another advisory commission currently looking into the general situation in Rakhine state after being asked in August by Ms Suu Kyi.
But some have questioned how useful this commission will be, given the exhaustive number of reports that already exist. Its report, in any case, will not be released until later this year.
Reporting by Kevin Ponniah.


Cambridge United have signed Southend forward Barry Corr on a two-year deal.

The 30-year-old helped the Shrimpers earn promotion to League One in 2014-15, scoring 15 league goals - including one in the League Two play-off semi-final, first leg tie at Stevenage.
Corr was out of contract and ends a five-year spell at Roots Hall, in which he netted 63 times in 185 games.
"There were a few clubs interested, but I've got a good feeling about here," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
"Some people from the outside might wonder whether it's the right decision, but I think maybe at the end of next season people won't be wondering why I've come here.
"The club's going places, the players that are coming in are good; there's good plans here."
The former Sheffield Wednesday and Exeter forward also paid tribute to his former club as they prepare to play in the division above him.
"I've had a great time there, the fans have always been very good to me," he said.
"It was a difficult decision to leave, but I think it was probably the right time for me to leave."


Pop star Taylor Swift has swept the board at the Billboard music awards, winning eight of the 14 categories in which she was nominated.

Among her prizes were best female artist, best streaming song for Shake It Off and the ceremony's top honour, artist of the year.
British star Sam Smith won best new artist - and accepted his trophy using flash cards after having vocal surgery.
But Kanye West was booed as he closed the show with a medley of hits.
Audience members jeered as the rapper's sisters-in-law, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, introduced his set; and the booing continued during his performance.
Surrounded by pyrotechnics and largely in the shadows, West's delivery on All Day and Black Skinhead was angry and intense. And while some disapproved, other fans could be seen pumping their fists to the tracks.
TV audiences were also left mystified as the first minute of his set was censored by broadcasters ABC - reminiscent of West's performance at the Brit Awards earlier this year.
Other artists were more favourably received, with Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea receiving a standing ovation for the first performance of their new song, Pretty Girls.
And Scottish rockers Simple Minds took to the stage to perform Don't You Forget About Me, marking the 30th anniversary of teen movie The Breakfast Club, which featured the song in its closing moments.
One Direction came away with two trophies, for best group and best touring artist, dedicating the latter to "our brother Zayn" Malik, who left the band in March.
Swift opened the show with the premiere of her star-studded new video, Bad Blood - which features the likes of Ellie Goulding, Selena Gomez, Jessica Alba and Cindy Crawford.
The singer, who has successfully transitioned from country artist to pop star, accepted the prize for best album by thanking the fans who "embraced change".
"I love you so much, more than I will be able to say to you," she added.
Smith, who is recovering from throat surgery, sent his acceptance message in a special video.
He held up a series of cards, reading: "Thank you Billboard for this incredible honour. Secondly, thank you to my amazing fans. It's times like this that I realise how lucky I am to have you in my life.
"I can't wait to get this surgery out of the way so I can sing my ass off for you again."
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea won top rap song for Fancy, her collaboration with Britain's Charli XCX, while John Legend won Top radio song for All Of Me.
Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass was named top digital song and top Hot 100 song, recognising its US chart performance.
Coldplay won best rock album for Ghost Stories, while Irish singer Hozier picked up best rock song for Take Me To Church.
In tribute to the late singer Ben E King, rock band Imagine Dragons performed Stand By Me to an audience that included the late singer's daughters and granddaughters.
And presenter Ludacris also gave a touching tribute to blues star BB King, who died on Friday.


One of the UK's leading scientists says Michael Gove's attack on experts during the EU referendum risked undermining science and scientific evidence.

Nobel prize-winning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse told BBC Newsnight experts "are being derided and pushed back".
Mr Gove says he had economists mostly in mind when he said "people in this country have had enough of experts".
But he admitted some people may have felt "licensed" by his remarks to challenge all forms of expertise.
Mr Gove made the controversial remarks in an interview with Sky's Faisal Islam three weeks before last year's EU referendum.
Michael Gove was justice secretary at the time and a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign.
Critics claimed Mr Gove was whipping up an anti-intellectual mood with parallels to Donald Trump's assault on media and other sources of information.
Mr Gove said his remarks were taken out of context because Mr Islam interrupted him before he was able to clarify that he was referring to "organizations with acronyms who had got things wrong in the past".
He told Newsnight he had failed to express himself more carefully because it was "a high profile, high intensity, high tension, high nervousness, encounter".
He insisted he did not regret using the word "expert" but added: "One of the things that is occasionally irritating is that people assume that what I was saying was a blanket rejection of facts, evidence, rigour - when in fact what I was trying to do was to say look let's simply not take arguments at face value, just because someone works for a prestigious organisation."
He conceded that some people may have felt encouraged by his comments to cast doubt on all forms of expertise. "It may be that there are some people out there who think that that I'm giving them licence to operate in that way. Who's to say?"
He added: "I would hope that people looking at my career would say whatever that phrase may have encouraged or licensed, actually the man uttering it was someone who believed in more knowledge and more critical thinking - not less."
But Sir Paul, a former president of Britain's top scientific body, the Royal Society, said even if Mr Gove had meant to cast doubt primarily on economics, he had been "irresponsible" not to clarify his remarks.
He said the comment "spilled over into all sorts of other areas where experts have an enormous contribution to make to the proper running of society".
"The fact that experts have been derided in this way does have an effect in undermining science and scientific evidence."
Sir Paul said the British public still has high levels of trust in scientists but we are living in a period where "opinion is on the front foot".
"Those who are expert, who have the knowledge, who have the intellectual ability to dissect these difficult problems, are being derided and pushed back," he said.
"My view about this is that it cannot last for very long, because opinion is not built on firm foundations and it rapidly falls apart. And I think we're seeing that already with, for example, Mr Trump.
"Science is built to last. Opinions are not built to last."
Ian Katz was reporting for BBC Newsnight. Watch his full report on experts on the programme at 22:30 on BBC Two - are catch up afterwards on iPlayer.