The authors present to the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG EMM) the scientific background and justification for the development of a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea planning area. In accordance with the recommendations by WG-EMM-14 (SC-CAMLR-XXIII, Annex 6), this was done in three separate documents (Part A-C). WG-EMM-16/01 (Part A) sets out the general context of the establishment of CCAMLR-MPAs and provides the background information on the Weddell Sea MPA (WSMPA) planning area; WG-EMM-16/02 (Part B) informs on the data retrieval process and WG-EMM-16/03 (Part C) describes the methods and the results of the scientific analyses as well as the development of the objectives and finally of the borders for the WSMPA.

Earlier versions of Parts A-C were already presented at the meetings of EMM and SC-CAMLR in 2015. The Scientific Committee did recognise that the body of science of the background documents (SC-CAMLR-XXXIV/BG/15, BG/16, BG/17) provides the necessary foundation for developing a WSMPA proposal (SC-CAMLR-XXXIV, § 5.11).

Here, the authors present the final version of Part C to WG EMM. Part C has been further revised in the light of comments received at the above mentioned meetings and in the 2015/16 intersessional period. The text has also undergone final editorial corrections. Chapter 1 shows a revision of the data analysis including, for example, newly analysed data layers on seabirds and demersal fish. Chapter 2 provides an update of the newly conducted MPA scenario development incorporating a cost layer analysis.

Penguins, albatrosses, petrels, elephant seals and fur seals are marine top predators that have to come on land to reproduce. Therefore, they are the only marine top predators that can be studied from land base sites, making them the most accessible convenient models to study marine ecosystems. Indeed, seabirds and seals are considered as good indicators of changes in ecosystems at differential spatial and temporal scales. However, current conservation measures, which comprise relatively few impact mitigation actions and restricted protection of the sole coastal areas, are insufficient, especially for the oceanic realm. Today, there is an urgent need to identify and protect the open sea environments where seabirds and marine mammals forage.

The first stage of most conservation planning is to identify areas that warrant protection (including areas that are already protected). The main criteria used to identify such areas are biological diversity (species richness), rarity, population abundance, environmental representativeness and site area. Where distribution data are both comprehensive and accurate, it is possible to identify areas of high species richness (hotspots), focusing on threat level (endangered species).

This Atlas of top predators from the French Southern Territories in the Southern Indian Ocean is a summary of information on the use of the southern Indian Ocean by 22 seabirds and seals species: king penguin, gentoo penguin, Adelie penguin, eastern rockhopper penguin, northern rockhopper penguin, macaroni penguin, Amsterdam albatross, wandering albatross, black-browed albatross, Indian yellow-nosed albatross, light-mantled albatross, sooty albatross, southern giant petrel, northern giant petrel, southern fulmar, Cape petrel, snow petrel, white-chinned petrel, grey petrel, brown skua, southern elephant seal and Antarctic fur seal.

The distribution map of each species was obtained by the use of tracking methods that allow identifying important areas in the southern Indian Ocean. The determination of zones of high species richness suggests several important areas for top predators. First the breeding colonies and surrounding zones: Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, Marion and Prince Edward islands and the Del Cano Rise, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Plateau and East Antarctica (Adelie Land sector). Second, the upwelling-current zones: Benguela and Agulhas Currents Systems and third several the oceanic zones: the Southwest Indian Ridge (East Bouvetoya and the North Subtropical Front), the Mid-Indian Ridge (North of Kerguelen and the Eastern Indian Ocean, the Southeast Indian Ridge (Great Australian Bight and Tasmania, Ob and Lena Banks, and East Antarctica (Prydz Bay - Queen Maud Land sectors, Adelie Land sector).

The analysis of distribution indicates that some pelagic species have a much wider foraging range outside the breeding season than during the breeding season (some disperse over very large areas, i.e. wandering albatross). This highlights the urgent need to strengthen collaborations, namely between conservation and management organisms such as CCAMLR and the fisheries organisations (RFMOs), to ensure the protection of these species and the conservation of the ecosystem that will also be beneficial for many other species.

In conclusion, although this inventory of areas of key importance is preliminary because of the lack of data on several keystone species such as burrowing petrels which could not be studied in this work, the results presented here show an unprecedented improvement in the identification of priority areas within the Southern Indian Ocean, which should be the primary targets of site-based conservation efforts in the near future. The Southern Indian Ocean is not pristine. The most serious threats are linked to industrial fishing activities, including fishery discards, bycatch of seabirds and marine mammals, as well as, in a lesser extent, degradation of marine environments through global and local pollution. On land, alien introductions and diseases are now the main threats. Despite much improvement in the conservation measures taken by several fisheries, especially in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, fisheries continue to exert an important negative influence on several seabirds, especially on the high seas. However climate change is now increasingly considere to have a negative impact on seabirds at some Antarctic and sub-Antarctic localities.

The authors present to the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG EMM) the scientific background and justification for the development of a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea planning area. In accordance with the recommendations by WG-EMM-14 (SC-CAMLR-XXIII, Annex 6), this was done in three separate documents (Part A-C). WG-EMM-16/01 (Part A) sets out the general context of the establishment of CCAMLR-MPAs and provides the background information on the Weddell Sea MPA (WSMPA) planning area; WG-EMM-16/02 (Part B) informs on the data retrieval process and WG-EMM-16/03 (Part C) describes the methods and the results of the scientific analyses as well as the development of the objectives and finally of the borders for the WSMPA.

Earlier versions of Parts A-C were already presented at the meetings of EMM and SC- CAMLR in 2015. The Scientific Committee did recognise that the body of science of the background documents (SC-CAMLR-XXXIV/BG/15, BG/16, BG/17) provides the necessary foundation for developing a WSMPA proposal (SC-CAMLR-XXXIV, § 5.11).

Here, the authors present to WG EMM the final version of Part B that provides a systematic overview of the environmental (chapter 1) and ecological data sets (chapter 2) acquired for the WSMPA planning. Part B has been further revised in the light of comments received at the above mentioned meetings and in the 2015/16 intersessional period. Some data sets were newly acquired (e.g. data on seabirds, demersal fish) and final editorial changes were done.

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are considered to be one of the key species in the Antarctic marine food web, being prey to a wide variety of dependent species as well as being commercially harvested. The commercial exploitation of krill is managed under the direction of CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources), utilising results derived from the CCAMLR generalised yield model and krill yield model (Constable and de la Mare, 1996; Butterworth et al. 1994). A key parameter of the krill yield model is an estimate of the pre-exploitation biomass of krill (B₀). The current estimate of B₀ which is used by CCAMLR in the model is derived from the CCAMLR-2000 synoptic acoustic survey (hereafter CCAMLR-2000) in the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) statistical subareas 48.1, 48.2, 48.3 and 48.4 (Hewitt et al. 2004; Watkins et al. 2004). The design, planning, implementation and subsequent first analysis of the CCAMLR-2000 B₀ estimate were initiated in 1995 and documented within the CCAMLR WG-EMM reports (SC-CAMLR-XIV, Annex 4, Paragraph 4.61;  SC-CAMLR-XV, Annex 4, Paragraphs 3.72 to 3.75, 8.8; SC-CAMLR-XVI, Annex 4, Paragraphs 8.109 to 8.129; SC-CAMLR-XVII, Annex 4, Paragraphs 9.49 to 9.90; SC-CAMLR-XVIII, Annex 4, paragraphs 8.41 to 8.49) as well as papers tabled at those meetings (CCAMLR 1995; 1996; 1997; 1998; 1999). In particular two workshops, one planning (SC-CAMLR-XVIII, Annex 4, Appendix D) and one analysis (SC-CAMLR-XIX, Annex 4, Appendix G), provide background and detail to the survey design, implementation and original analysis (CCAMLR 1999; 2000). Since 2000 a number of re-analyses, improvements and corrections to the acoustic protocol to determine krill density have been tabled at the CCAMLR WG-EMM and SG-ASAM meetings. This document aims to summarise those changes and their rationale.

For ease of reading, this document has been separated into nine sections: Survey design; Acoustic data collection; Acoustic data processing; Target strength (TS) model and implementation; Target identification; Echo integration; Conversion of acoustic backscatter to areal biomass; Estimation of total biomass from areal biomass; and Estimation of uncertainty. Key methods and their derivations are highlighted in bold. This document does not describe a re-design of the CCAMLR synoptic survey, but details changes to the initial analysis, and the procedures (Table 1) which lead to the current estimate of B₀.

We report on preliminary analyses to estimate macaroni penguin consumption of prey in Subarea 48.3 during the period when penguins are constrained by breeding. We show that the greatest levels of consumption occur during incubation and pre-moult, but that there are also evident increases towards the end of guard and the end of crèche. Our initial results indicate that levels of krill consumption are comparable with some previously reported estimates, but with some important differences. This work represents a collaborative study by scientists working through WG-EMM-STAPP. We propose that similar such analyses should be undertaken for the other krill-eating penguin species breeding in Area 48, and that such analyses are best undertaken collaboratively.

The authors present to the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG EMM) the scientific background and justification for the development of a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea planning area. In accordance with the recommendations by WG-EMM-14 (SC-CAMLR-XXIII, Annex 6), this was done in three separate documents (Part A-C). WG-EMM-16/01 (Part A) sets out the general context of the establishment of CCAMLR-MPAs and provides the background information on the Weddell Sea MPA (WSMPA) planning area; WG-EMM-16/02 (Part B) informs on the data retrieval process and WG-EMM-16/03 (Part C) describes the methods and the results of the scientific analyses as well as the development of the objectives and finally of the borders for the WSMPA.

Earlier versions of Parts A-C were already presented at the meetings of EMM and SC-CAMLR in 2015. The Scientific Committee did recognise that the body of science of the background documents (SC-CAMLR-XXXIV/BG/15, BG/16, BG/17) provides the necessary foundation for developing a WSMPA proposal (SC-CAMLR-XXXIV, § 5.11).

Here, the authors present the final version of Part A to WG EMM. Part A has undergone final editorial corrections in the 2015/16 intersessional period and contains (i) a synopsis in terms of the establishment of MPAs (chapter 1); (ii) a description of the boundaries of the WSMPA planning area (chapter 2); (iii) a comprehensive, yet succinct, general description of the Weddell Sea ecosystem (chapter 3); (iv) and finally a guidance regarding the future work beyond the development of the scientific basis for the evaluation of a WSMPA (chapter 4).

In April 2016 Southern Ocean Network of Acoustics (SONA) hosted a workshop of its partners and invited guests to discuss acoustic processing methods and future directions. Five agenda items were discussed: Acoustic data/data coverage and availability; Data processing techniques and comparison; Metrics of data quality and DOIs; Summary statistics and a way forward for regional comparison; and Current and future collaboration and opportunities. This report is a summary of those agenda items.

This study used a Marxan approach to identify important benthic areas within MPA Planning Domain 1 (Western Antarctic Peninsula and Southern Scotia Sea). The results do not constitute any proposal for candidate MPAs, however they may be useful in contributing additional information towards the Domain 1 MPA planning process. Several core areas important for benthic conservation are described according to habitat-forming features such as geomorphology and bathymetry. The core areas are primarily located west of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Bransfield Strait and north of the South Shetland Islands, and around the South Orkney Islands. Data layers shared with all CCAMLR Members as part of the Domain 1 planning process were used in this study (under the CCAMLR data use and access rules). This study demonstrates the value of shared datasets in facilitating additional, supporting analyses for MPA planning. The range of available data also has relevance to a wide variety of other CCAMLR work, in addition to MPA planning. We therefore recommend that such data should continue to be made available through the CCAMLR website as far as possible, to provide for their use by any Member in MPA-related or other analyses.

The authors considered the inter-annual variability of krill transport factors in the Scotia Sea analysing data from available meso-scale surveys covered the Scotia Sea. The subject of analysis were the geostrophic water masses circulation and krill transport factors, including variability of water masses  (kg / m³) and krill biomass (g / m3) transporting across the survey area.  Obtained estimates were compared with those from CCAMLR 2000 Survey.  It was shown that the presence or absence of krill in subareas/SSMUs in the Scotia Sea is in a greater degree a reflection of the dynamics of krill geostrophic transport, and is not determined by the krill stock state or not determined by the influence of krill fishery.

Analysis of spatial-temporal variability of the CPUE indices for the krill fishery in Area 48 (2006-2015) with using fishery index anomalies, method “Semaphore” and cluster analysis with option“Сoniss” was provided.   Results of this analysis detailed by Subarea 48.1, 48.2 and 48.3 and SSMUs and fishery techniques are considered.