CCAMLR

CCAMLR is in a leadership position with respect to the international community and the global biosphere when it comes to climate action in the Southern Ocean, and CCAMLR’s climate action should reflect that responsibility. In practice, there is a considerable mismatch between the urgency of addressing climate change and the pace of climate action in the Southern Ocean. In this paper ASOC makes recommendations to CCAMLR to improve its climate action record including:

• agreeing to a revised CCRWP for CCAMLR during the 2021 Scientific Committee meeting, including agreeing to a timeline to ensure full implementation of the CCRWP by 2030;
• establishing a subsidiary group in 2021 to provide annual policy advice to CCAMLR on climate change, including with respect to fisheries management, spatial protections, and any other climate issues as they arise.

CCAMLR must act to conserve Antarctic marine living resources and the Antarctic ecosystem, using the best scientific evidence available. The Antarctic krill fishery has dramatically increased in recent years to more than two-thirds of the trigger level in Area 48, with concerns by most Members that catches at these levels if taken from small areas could impact krill predators. Recent CCAMLR meetings have indicated that the current scientific information on Antarctic krill, the krill-based food web and the fishery is insufficient for some Members to agree to spatial management measures influencing the spatial distribution of krill catch. Critically, the availability of scientific information is dependent on funding scientific activities that are relevant to the decisions being made. This should be part of the cost of managing a fishery. In recent decades, the economics of fisheries has come under the spotlight, particularly in relation to whether those benefitting from the fisheries are making reasonable contributions to their management. In this paper, we assess the economics of the Antarctic krill fishery, the beneficiaries of the fishery, and the costs of producing the scientific information currently available. From this analysis, we recommend that the Commission agrees on a management strategy for which the research needs are identified, costed and implemented, and to which the Commission can commit to fulfilling.

2021 is a critical year for the management of the Antarctic krill fishery, which is expanding even as climate impacts on krill habitat increase. CCAMLR must continue its efforts to complete the agreed krill work plan and develop a new science-based CM to replace 51-07 as soon as possible, but meanwhile must prevent a situation this year in which 51-07 lapses completely. ASOC therefore recommends that:

• SC-CAMLR completes the krill work plan agreed in 2019 —including the biomass estimate, stock assessment, and risk assessment, and CCAMLR subsequently agrees on a new, improved conservation measure replacing CM 51-07.
• CCAMLR renews CM 51-07 if a new CM cannot be agreed this year, so that the SC can complete the agreed krill work plan and formulate a new CM.
• CCAMLR avoids the complete lapse of CM 51-07 as reversion to management under CM 51-01 alone would be irresponsible given that the combined impacts on the ecosystem of climate change and concentrated fishing are already of concern.

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.