CCAMLR

ASOC submitted four background papers to CCAMLR-40, highlighting ongoing challenges to krill fishery management, marine protected areas and climate change. Throughout the intersessional period, ASOC and its member groups conducted a variety of activities supporting Antarctic conservation, including participation in online academic conferences, workshops, symposia and webinars, and making contributions to a range of research projects. CCAMLR must respond to the ongoing climate and biodiversity crisis and take immediate action to achieve the long-term conservation of the Southern Ocean.

An international group of scientists from 11 countries and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), including those holding or having access to long-term marine mammal data and having experience of working with marine mammals in the Extended Southern Ocean region, came together for five days to nominate candidate Important Marine Mammal Areas (cIMMAs), as determined by a set of criteria supported by specific evidence that capture critical aspects of marine mammal (seals and cetaceans) biology, ecology and population structure.  At the conclusion of the five days, 15 cIMMAs were submitted to an independent review panel and 13 were later approved as IMMAs. These are now listed and shown on the IMMA e-Atlas with access to shapefile and background information (https://www.marinemammalhabitat.org/imma-eatlas/). The outcomes of this work may be useful in the development of spatial conservation measures.

SCAR is an interdisciplinary body of the International Science Council (ISC), with a membership of 45 countries and nine ISC unions and comprising an extensive international network of scientists.  SCAR is charged with initiating, developing and coordinating high quality international scientific research in, from and about the Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

SCAR’s Mission is to advance Antarctic research, including observations from Antarctica, and to promote scientific knowledge, understanding and education on any aspect of the Antarctic region and its role in the Earth System.  SCAR also provides independent and objective scientific advice and information to the Antarctic Treaty System and other bodies and facilitates the international exchange of Antarctic information within the scientific community.

Here, SCAR reports on recent and future activities of relevance to CCAMLR.

The Antarctic Environments Portal has been designed and developed to support the work of the Antarctic Treaty System by providing accurate and up-to-date information on issues of relevance to the policy community.

Since January 2020 SCAR has assumed oversight and management of the Portal.  A new website has been designed and launched with the aim of ensuring easy access to Information Summaries.

This Background Paper provides examples of how Information Summaries published in the Portal link directly to issues of priority interest to CCAMLR.

The Paper encourages CCAMLR Members to i) support further development of the Antarctic Environments Portal and the publication of Information Summaries, recognising its value in contributing to CCAMLR’s work (in particular that of the Scientific Committee and its Working Groups), and ii) identify any additional Information Summaries that would be useful to CCAMLR’s interests.

This background document details the developing scientific data compilation and analysis to achieve the best available science for the conservation objectives of the Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area (WSMPA) Phase 2.

Ocean acidification is predicted to intensify in the coming decades, and is likely to disrupt physiological processes and have far-reaching consequences for marine habitats, organisms and ecosystems. Ocean acidification and warming have synergistic effects that exacerbate the risk of population declines in sensitive species.  Combined with rising temperatures, sea-level rise and more frequent and higher magnitude/amplitude extreme events, ocean acidification threatens the goods and services provided by ecosystems. Further targeted research is important to understand the impact of ocean acidification on marine living resources. Consideration of acidification trajectories and biotic impacts will be essential for predicting futures and planning conservation efforts in the Southern Ocean region.

Climate change and its impacts are of much concern globally and to the Antarctic Treaty System given realised and expected impacts on global sea level rise and biodiversity.

The recent Special and Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide the clearest current summaries of global climate change that has taken place, impacts that are being realised, and changes that are forecast.

Attention is drawn here to key findings from these IPCC Reports, focussing on substantial uncertainties about global, Antarctic and Southern Ocean impacts; and to the research being undertaken through SCAR to address these uncertainties.  The paper presented here is not intended as a comprehensive synthesis.

Key uncertainties include the current and future behaviour of the Antarctic cryosphere (notably implications for global sea level and coastal populations and infrastructure); climatic variability over short timescales which is especially important given its significance for impacts and operational forecasts; and the future of Antarctic marine biodiversity, approaches to improve its conservation, and ways to mitigate climate change impacts on both.

Quantifying and reducing these uncertainties through focussed research is critical.

More critical is the need to convey to nations the importance of the Paris Climate Agreement, and expected strengthening of greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets, for maintaining Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments and their biodiversity.