CCAMLR

Both the Convention for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty provide for the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) for purposes of scientific study and to conserve unique features and components of the Antarctic marine ecosystem. This paper summarizes the case for including the Ross Sea within CCAMLR’s network of MPAs, following the discussion at the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG- EMM) meeting in South Africa this year. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) proposes, in part because the area meets several other internationally recognized biodiversity criteria for MPAs, that the Ross Sea shelf and slope become part of the CCAMLR network, allowing marine science to continue without interference from other, extractive uses that would alter ecosystem structure and dynamics. ASOC submits that protection of the Ross Sea continental shelf and slope is a high priority, as an area embedded within one of the regions recognized by CCAMLR through the bioregionalisation process in 2008, and by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP), as priority areas for MPA designation. This paper outlines how the Ross Sea shelf and slope fulfill the criteria for selecting sites under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty and CCAMLR for the designation of marine protected areas to conserve and enable the continued assessment of the structure and dynamics of a unique marine ecosystem. For perspective, this paper makes comparisons with the special area criteria under the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites. The Ross Sea is of high global importance in terms of its biodiversity, evolutionary significance, disproportional presence of many charismatic high-latitude species, and potential as a climate refuge and reference area for the detection of the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. According to an independent analysis of human impacts on the world's oceans, the Ross Sea is the least affected large continental shelf ecosystem remaining on Earth (Halpern et al. 2008). If protected it would be the highest latitude habitat represented in a comprehensive and representative network of Southern Ocean MPAs, and has for decades been an area in which investigations have led the way in disclosing interannual, decadal and long-term effects of climate change on the hydrography and biota of a high latitude system. The Ross Sea benthos is especially rich and the abundance of its top predator species is unique. As the Continental shelf and slope contain most of the spawning/breeding, feeding, molting and wintering areas of these predators, ASOC submits that the Ross Sea should be protected as a unit.

ASOC is submitting for the consideration of the Commission and of the Standing Committee on Implementation and Compliance (SCIC) the preliminary results of research conducted by the Pew Environment Group (PEG) to compare the port State measures established by ten Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) with the port State measures established by the FAO Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA). Preliminary findings of this research indicate that the port State measures of these RFMOs cannot yet compare with the PSMA standards: they are not sufficiently comprehensive to cover all IUU fishing activity; they are not effective enough in deterring the activities of IUU operators; and they do not establish adequate requirements to ensure proper transparency and information sharing among all concerned actors. CCAMLR, despite having a number of effective port State measures, needs to improve its regime. In particular, it should strengthen its provisions currently applicable to toothfish vessels by prohibiting any form of port use, including services, to any IUU vessel, and extending these provisions to vessels engaged in other fisheries. It is important that CCAMLR aligns its measures with those of the PSMA and encourages its members to expeditiously sign and ratify the agreement, in order to address difficulties of comparability of current port schemes, avoid unnecessary difficulties for complying operators and prevent gaps at the global level. The document attached presents preliminary findings from this gap analysis for CCAMLR, based on publicly available information up to 31 July 2010. PEG will publish a final report with information on all researched RFMOs in early 2011. PEG and ASOC welcome any information from CCAMLR, its Members and observers, which verifies, supplements or contradicts information presented in this preliminary report.

Abstract Ocean acidification poses severe potential threats to marine ecosystems, including the Southern Ocean. The relative undersaturation of CaCO3 in the Southern Ocean suggests that ocean acidification will have its greatest initial impacts there if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their projected trajectory. Aragonite is a form of calcium carbonate essential to shell forming organisms such as the pteropods that form the base of much of the Southern Ocean food chain. Orr et al (2005) predicted that under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) IS92a warming scenario , which assumes “business as usual” - emissions leading to 778 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere by 2100 - aragonite will be undersaturated throughout the Southern Ocean. Even under the more conservative IPCC S650 scenario, which assumes that atmospheric CO2 will only reach 563 ppm by 2100, the aragonite saturation horizon is likely to have shrunk from 730 to 60 m by 2100, with the entire Weddell Sea undersaturated with respect to aragonite. Current greenhouse gas emission projections make it imperative that CCAMLR Members develop research programs to fill in the gaps of current research on Southern Ocean impacts as soon as possible. Longer-term studies of acidification for the entire lifecycle of important species are needed, including implications for non-calcifying organisms and impacts of ocean acidification on other biological processes besides calcification in invertebrates and vertebrates. Ocean acidification is relevant to consideration of the impacts of fishing on benthic organisms (including cold water corals) and the management of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). Acidification is likely to negatively affect recovery period and whether species can recover.