The CAMLR Scientific Committee in 2017 reviewed the scientific background document SC-CAMLR-XXXVI/BG/28. Germany was asked to carry out further work, in particular as regards the issues raised at WG-EMM-17 and SC-CAMLR-XXXVI (SC-CAMLR-XXXVI, Annex 6, §§ 5.1-5.14). The implementation of recommendations and questions raised by WG-EMM-17 and SC-CAMLR-XXXVI was already presented at the Workshop of Spatial Management (Cambridge, UK, 2 to 6 July 2018), where the great amount of work was acknowledge and the updates were welcomed.

With this document, the Delegation of Germany would also like to inform the Scientific Committee about the additional scientific analyses and implementation of the recommendations carried out in support of the development of a CCAMLR MPA in the Weddell Sea.

Chapter 1 of this background paper reflects on the recommendations concerning the suitability of some data layers for the Marxan analyses. Chapter 2 discusses the recommendations on the suitability of the cost layer developed for the WSMPA Marxan analysis (SC-CAMLR-XXXVI, Annex 6, §§ 5.10 and 5.12) and presents the updated cost layer. Chapter 3 provides a new data layer on juvenile Antarctic toothfish, and Chapter 4 presents a robustness test of the WSMPA Marxan model.