CCAMLR

The development of a representative system of Antarctic marine protected areas (MPAs) will require up to date information on the location, conservation aims and current status of protected areas designated within the Convention Area. As at August 2011, there is one designated MPA managed by CCAMLR. In addition, the ATCM has designated 6 exclusively marine Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs), 4 ASPAs with both marine and terrestrial components, and 3 Antarctic Specially Managed Areas (ASMAs) with both marine and terrestrial components (all located south of 60°S). A further 3 MPAs have so far been formally declared in those areas within the CCAMLR Convention Area that are managed under national jurisdictions. The geographic distribution and range of values being protected within these areas is currently limited and further areas will need to be designated in order to achieve a more representative system. The information compiled here provides a baseline against which additional proposed areas can be considered, and the future development of a representative system can be evaluated.

 Regional climate change is now known to be well established in the Antarctic; however, the implications for biological systems remain poorly understood. Investigating how marine species respond to climate change is potentially best carried out in regions and with species that have been little changed by human activities, particularly by the impacts (either direct or indirect) of marine harvesting. If CCAMLR is to embrace the wider implications of climate change in the context of ecosystem based management, it must understand how the Southern Ocean marine ecosystem will react to climate change, both in the presence of and absence of harvesting. We therefore recommend that locations currently covered by seasonal sea ice (as of 2011) could be considered for creation as restricted use Marine Protected Areas, and that the boundaries of such areas would henceforth remain fixed even though the average position of the ice edge may move further south in future years. Where implemented, these restrictions should remain in force until accumulated scientific evidence shows that krill population processes within these previously ice covered regions, retain the capacity to produce a sustainable harvest, taking into account the need to maintain ecological relationships including for dependent species.

Regional climate change is now known to be well established in the Antarctic, particularly in the Antarctic Peninsula region. One of the most evident signs of climate change has been ice shelf collapse; overall, 87% of the Peninsula’s glaciers have retreated in recent decades. Ice shelf collapse will lead to new marine habitats and to biological colonisation. Colonisation of these habitats may simply include species from areas that are immediately adjacent to the collapsed ice shelf; however, other complex processes may also take place as warmer waters may create opportunities for species to return that were last present during the last interglacial, a warmer period than at present. In addition, altered ecosystem dynamics may also allow new alien species to invade as ocean warming potentially removes physiological barriers that have previously led to the isolation of the Antarctic benthos. Given the complexity of the possible interactions and the need to study these in the absence of any other human induced perturbation we recommend that locations under existing ice shelves (as at 2010) should be created as no take Marine Protected Areas, and that the boundaries of these areas should henceforth remain fixed, even if the ice shelves recede or collapse in the future.

The Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has the primary responsibility for developing a representative system of marine protected areas (RSMPA) for the Southern Ocean. Under the CCAMLR marine protected area (MPA) work schedule, two important milestones for 2011 are the identification of candidate MPAs and the submission of MPA proposals to the CCAMLR Scientific Committee. However, the majority of the Southern Ocean has not undergone systematic conservation planning to identify potential areas for inclusion in a RSMPA. We address this gap in existing knowledge by identifying areas that would contribute to a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine protected areas. We focus our study where marine protected area planning is unlikely to be underway. We aim to identify a system of areas that will capture the set of specified conservation features within the study area including benthic ecoregions and environmental types, pelagic regions, rare features, vulnerable marine ecosystems and biological features. We then provide information that will enable CCAMLR’s MPA workshop and other CCAMLR forums to assess the importance of the areas identified to the development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine protected areas for the Southern Ocean.The Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has the primary responsibility for developing a representative system of marine protected areas (RSMPA) for the Southern Ocean. Under the CCAMLR marine protected area (MPA) work schedule, two important milestones for 2011 are the identification of candidate MPAs and the submission of MPA proposals to the CCAMLR Scientific Committee. However, the majority of the Southern Ocean has not undergone systematic conservation planning to identify potential areas for inclusion in a RSMPA. We address this gap in existing knowledge by identifying areas that would contribute to a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine protected areas. We focus our study where marine protected area planning is unlikely to be underway. We aim to identify a system of areas that will capture the set of specified conservation features within the study area including benthic ecoregions and environmental types, pelagic regions, rare features, vulnerable marine ecosystems and biological features. We then provide information that will enable CCAMLR’s MPA workshop and other CCAMLR forums to assess the importance of the areas identified to the development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine protected areas for the Southern Ocean.

The "CAML / SCAR-MarBIN Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean"

Claude De Broyer (Brussels), Philippe Koubbi (Villefranche), Bruno Danis (Brussels), Bruno David (Dijon), Susie Grant (Cambridge), Huw Griffiths (Cambridge), Julian Gutt (Bremerhaven), Christoph Held (Bremerhaven), Graham Hosie (Hobart), Falk Huetmann (Fairbanks), Alix Post (Canberra), Sophie Mormède (Wellington), Ben Raymond (Hobart), Yan Ropert-Coudert (Strasbourg), Victoria Wadley (Hobart).

Biogeographic information is of primary importance for monitoring biodiversity and detecting impacts of environmental changes, developing the bio/ecoregionalisation of the Southern Ocean, designing marine protected areas, conducting comparative biogeographic analyses or discovering marine biodiversity hotspots.

At the end of five years of extensive biodiversity exploration and assessment by the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (www.caml.aq), with 19 CAML-dedicated cruises in the whole Southern Ocean, and following the intense compilation efforts of biogeographic data by the SCAR-Marine Biodiversity Information Network (www.scarmarbin.be), a new initiative, the multi-authored “Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean”, will synthesize the CAML biogeographic results on the basis of an unprecedented amount, diversity and quality of biogeographic data.

The “Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean”, involving 60 contributors under the aegis of SCAR, will constitute a major scientific output of CAML and SCAR-MarBIN. It will take the form of a collection of maps and synthetic texts presenting the key biogeographic patterns and processes of the Antarctic marine biodiversity (benthos, plankton, nekton, birds and seals) south of 40°S. The hard copy version in large format will be extended by a dynamic online version on the SCAR-MarBIN portal.

Contacts: co-chief editors:
Dr Claude De Broyer (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium) claude [dot] debroyer [at] naturalsciences [dot] be
Prof. Philippe Koubbi (Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche, Villefranche sur mer, France) koubbi [at] obs-vlfr [dot] fr
 

The Terra Nova Bay area is particularly valuable for science due to the presence of unique marine and terrestrial flora and fauna and the high diversity at both species and community level.
From an oceanographic perspective, the area is characterised by the occurrence of the Terra Nova Bay polynya, a crucial region for the formation of the High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW), formed by the salination of the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), that penetrates onto the continental shelf of the Ross Sea.
Herein, high primary production and strong benthic-pelagic coupling support species- and biomass-rich communities, either on the sea bottom (e.g. scallops and sponges) and in the water column. In fact, Terra Nova Bay represents a nursery area for the pelagic silverfish, a key species in the coastal food web, and hosts large assemblages of the crystal krill. All this supports several  colonies of top-predators, such as Adélie and emperor penguins, as well as flying sea-birds and marine mammals.
The Terra Nova Bay area has been widely investigated in the last 25 years:  extensive geological, oceanographic, marine and terrestrial ecological and biological research has been carried out, contributing substantially to our understanding of  ecosystem functioning and community processes.
The existence of several biodiversity databases (both terrestrial and marine) and of an ongoing marine long term research monitoring program make this area of high ecological and scientific value.
All these peculiarities have been already acknowledged through the establishment of two ASPAs (N° 161 and 165) and the setting up of a marine LTER site.
The awareness that the processes that make this area particularly valuable occur at a spatial scale which is larger than the presently protected areas suggests that management and conservation measures should be applied at a larger scale, by embracing more sites or enlarging the existing ones.
 

The details on designation of marine protected areas in the CCAMLR region are considered. The general and specific issues, such as MPA definition in application to CCAMLR area, permissions and restrictions, temporal and spatial extent are discussed. It is noted that the South Orkneys MPA designation procedure could be useful for CCAMLR MPA network development. On the Ross Sea, which still experienced small impact from human activity, establishing MPA here is important for investigation of climate change influence on ecosystems. The MPA Questionnaire is proposed for consideration to make easier the understanding of the Southern Ocean MPA designation process and problems.

Multi-resolution conservation planning: Designing MPA networks linking inshore and offshore ecosystems

Inshore and offshore marine conservation plans are often developed independently. This approach ignores ecological connectivity among ecosystems, across scales, and is economically inefficient. Designing Marine Protected Areas (MPA) networks linking inshore, continental shelf and offshore ecosystems requires a multi-scalar understanding of marine ecosystems and human activities. To address this challenge we developed a multi-resolution marine conservation planning approach and tested the method in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. Data on 400 marine items including habitats, species, processes and human activities were collected for the inshore, continental shelf and offshore regions. A spatially nested system of planning units, ranking in resolution from 0.2 km to 10 km, was designed to select priority areas for conservation. Using MARXAN conservation planning software, the site prioritisation process operated a selection from the coast to the offshore domain where more planning options are available. This approach reflects the multi-scalar nature of marine ecosystem patterns and processes. It also allows the smooth integration of a continuum of data ranking in resolution from a meter (i.e. field observation) to a kilometre (i.e. global satellite images such as MODIS data). Our method is simple and replicable, it contributes to better connectivity between inshore and offshore conservation systems, and towards more resilient and efficient MPA networks.

Application of marine conservation plans in South Africa to national policy, regional planning frameworks, and local implementation

Marine spatial conservation assessment and planning initiatives in South Africa have emerged at different scales. A national offshore assessment, providing a very broad framework for biodiversity conservation planning exists, but is limited in the availability of consistent fine-scale data for the whole planning region. This is particularly problematic in the inshore, specifically the shoreline, where relevant scales of biological pattern are at a much finer level than offshore, and where variability in threats to the marine environment tend occur at the scale of m’s rather than km’s, and stakeholders are strongly invested in knowledge about the patterns of the biodiversity that are clearly visible to them. In this context broad plans suffer credibility crises when they do not incorporate information at the same scale as the local knowledge. Consequently, our national offshore assessment addressed only those areas deeper than 30m, and finer-scale biodiversity assessments and plans were developed for inshore areas. In the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, we have piloted an approach to work from the shoreline out to the Exclusive Economic Zone, using a multi-scale analysis.  We compare our results with existing, differently-scaled plans, and explore the issues inherent in reconciling the differences in the areas identified as priorities for conservation action, the responses from non-governmental stakeholders in engaging in implementation of the plans, and the challenges in achieving co-ordination across different levels of government.
 

At present less than 1% of South Africa’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is protected within Marine Protected Areas. This project aimed to support the identification of a spatial management network in order to represent offshore biodiversity, protect vulnerable ecosystems, contribute to fisheries sustainability and reduce bycatch. This was achieved by collating data, engaging with relevant industries, scientists, government departments and conducting systematic planning using Marxan. The project identified nine priority areas for spatial management including no-take MPAs, benthic protection zones and fishery and bycatch management areas. In addition, the project has engaged with offshore stakeholders from the outset, has overcome significant challenges in engaging petroleum, diamond mining and fisheries sectors and has built some support for offshore MPAs. Considerable challenges remain in the implementation of spatial management but the project has garnered effective scientific support across multiple institutions and is building industry understanding and support through a flexible approach.