CCAMLR

The Ross Sea is a well-defined embayment of Antarctica about the size of southern Europe, bounded by Victoria Land to the west; King Edward VII Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land, to the east; the Ross Ice Shelf to the south; and the Southern Ocean, Pacific Sector, to the north. Its waters are composed of two related biotic systems: the Ross Sea Shelf Ecosystem (RSShE) and the Ross Sea Slope Ecosystem (RSSlE). The RSShE is the last Large Marine Ecosystems on Earth (except the Weddell Sea) that has escaped direct anthropogenic alteration; the RSSlE, similar to all of Earth’s other marine ecosystems, has lost its large baleen whales but otherwise is intact. A huge multidisciplinary, international scientific effort has been invested in studies of the geology, physics and biology of the Ross Sea over the past 45 years. In particular the activities of the US, NZ and Italian Antarctic programs have been a model of international scientific cooperation and collaboration. The successful result is an incredible wealth of knowledge, including long-term biological data sets, not available anywhere else in the Antarctic, that have documented clear signals of climate forcing, as well as top-down influences not confused by human exploitation or activity. Ironically, much remains unknown about how these ecosystems function. The Ross Sea is off limits to mineral extraction, but pressures on its biological resources are growing. The economic value of the resources should be weighed against the value of the system as a unique scientific resource. The Ross Sea represents an unparalleled natural laboratory in which the results of different fishery management strategies can be modeled in the context of short-term and decadal variation in biological populations, with these models applied elsewhere in the Southern Ocean and the World.

Management at Cape Royds aims to:
• avoid degradation of, or substantial risk to, the values of the Area by preventing unnecessary human disturbance to the Area;
• allow scientific research on the ecosystem, and in particular on the avifauna in the Area, while ensuring protection from over-sampling;
• minimize the possibility of introduction of alien plants, animals and microbes into the Area;
• allow visits for management purposes in support of the aims of the management plan.

Management at Western Bransfield Strait aims to:
• avoid degradation of, or substantial risk to, the values of the Area by preventing unnecessary human disturbance;
• allow scientific research on the marine environment while ensuring protection from oversampling;
• allow other scientific research within the Area provided it will not compromise the values for which the Area is protected;
• allow visits for management purposes in support of the aims of the management plan.

Management at Eastern Dallmann Bay aims to:
• avoid degradation of, or substantial risk to, the values of the Area by preventing unnecessary human disturbance;
• allow scientific research on the marine environment while ensuring protection from oversampling;
• allow other scientific research within the Area provided it will not compromise the values for which the Area is protected;
• allow visits for management purposes in support of the aims of the management plan.

The Area proposed for special protection is a small and narrow strip of waters extending approximately 9.5 km in length immediately to the south of Terra Nova Bay Station and up to a maximum of 7 km from the shore. The total area of the proposed site is just under 30 km2.
The boundaries proposed have been selected on the basis of the following criteria:
a) the proposed area encompasses the marine sites of primary scientific interest close to the coast and south of the station, within which long-term data have been collected;
b) the waters and benthic communities down to 200 m in depth are of greatest scientific interest, and the boundaries have been designed so as to include most of this region;
c) lines of latitude and longitude in the north, east and south offer a clear and practical definition of boundary coordinates which can be readily identified on maps and by ship navigation systems;
d) the need to ensure practical access by ships to Terra Nova Bay Station and that the associated operational activities were not unduly impeded;
e) the length of the proposed area ensures there is a gradient of distance from the station, which is useful when monitoring the extent of potential station impacts;
f) the marine area adjacent to the local Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony is included, which is considered potentially useful for monitoring the marine influence of the colony as a comparison to human influences. Special protection of the colony per se, however, is not considered necessary to meet the aims and objectives of the proposed management plan.

Satellite telemetry was used to determine the winter movements and distributions of five chinstrap and six Adélie penguins from two breeding colonies in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula region during the 2000 and 2001-2002 austral winters, respectively. Three chinstrap penguins from a breeding site in Admiralty Bay, King George Island (62° 10’ S, 58° 30’ W) were instrumented with satellite tags in early March 2000, following their annual molt; similarly, two birds were tagged in late February at their breeding site on Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island (62° 28’ S, 60° 46’ W). All five chinstrap penguins were tracked for a minimum of three months each, while one bird was followed for 5 months. Locations were obtained using the ARGOS satellite system and data analyses revealed that 4 of the 5 chinstrap penguins foraged largely on the shelf to the north and northeast of the South Shetland Islands in ice-free areas. The fifth chinstrap penguin, from the colony on KGI, proceeded northeast to the Elephant Island area and spent the next 4-5 months continuing to the East. This bird’s signal was lost just to the west of the South Sandwich Island group in late July, approximately 1300 km from its breeding colony. The migration path of this chinstrap penguin is remarkably similar to the only other record of a chinstrap penguin’s winter migration reported by Wilson et al. (1998). Three Adélie penguins with PTTs were tracked from mid-February to early April 2001, following their molt in the KGI breeding colony. All individuals remained in the Bransfield Strait adjacent to the western shore of the Antarctic Peninsula, within 150 km of the breeding colony where they were tagged. The following season, we attached PTTs to three Adélie penguins feeding large, nearly fledged chicks on KGI in late January 2002. We tracked all three around the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, deep into the Weddell Sea where they presumably hauled out to molt in late March – early April, between 69° and 70° S latitude. Our results suggest that Adélie and chinstrap penguins breeding in the same colonies during the summer may have vastly different migratory behaviors in winter. This may be a strategy evolved to avoid significant losses to any given breeding population by dispersing individuals to different winter ranges.

The attached document provides information on an atlas of sea ice produced by the n. It was compiled from AVHRR satellite imagery initially to provide information on the sea ice in the vicinity of the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program sites at Bechervaise Island near the Australian Station of Mawson, at Edmonson Point in the vicinity of the Italian Station of Terra Nova Bay and at Ross Island. The atlas is scheduled for release in August 2002.
Here we provide a sample only of the contents of the atlas which includes
• Title page
• Abstract
• Sample images from Bechervaise Island and Edmonson Point CEMP monitoring sites
The sample images chosen are for two breeding seasons of the Adélie penguins at Bechervaise Island and cover the period September to the following March in each of the seasons 1995/6 and 1997/98. Season 1995/6 was one of low breeding success and when the sea ice remained at the coast until February. Season 1997/8 by contrast showed good breeding success. This season the sea ice retreated earlier from the coast and for most of the chick rearing period there was open water to the edge of the Island.
Volume 1 of the Atlas contains the introduction and information on data collection, data processing and interpretation of the images. The remaining 5 volumes relate to the geographic areas which are centered on Mawson, Davis, Casey, Dumont D’Urville and Terra Nova Bay. The latter volume also includes Ross Island
The sea ice atlas will be available to Members on request to the Data Centre, Australian Antarctic Division (http://its-db.aad.gov.au/aadc/feedback/feedback.cfm) and will be provided on a series of CD ROMs.

During the breeding season, Antarctic fur seals are central-place foragers, ranging from their colony to feeding areas hours to days offshore, returning periodically to suckle. Outside of this, little is known about a female’s foraging strategy, her success upon which depends not only her survival but that of her young. As such, a fundamental component to understanding the survival and reproductive success of fur seals is to identify habitat preferences. Our objective was to characterize the distribution and range of foraging females rearing pups at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica. We instrumented 95 females with ARGOS satellite-linked transmitters prior to departures on foraging trips from late December to late February for four consecutive breeding seasons (1998/99-2001/02). We had 7,550 successful at-sea satellite locations (mean: 12/day/female, SE±0.11), after the data were filtered to eliminate positions that required females to travel >4m/sec. Foraging trip lengths averaged 4.0 days (SE±0.11). The mean range traveled offshore was 83.3km (SE?2.9) and the maximum distance was 369.1km. Foraging trip length was positively correlated with both foraging range (r2=0.48, F1,169=157.73, P

Antarctic fur seal pup growth studies presented and reviewed by WG-EMM-01 led to discussion on the need to modify Standard Method C2: Pup growth. The issues discussed relate to the timing of sampling and the selection of animals to weigh. The following is a proposal on how the protocol and reporting should be changed to facilitate future inter-annual and inter-regional comparisons of fur seal pup growth.