SCAR is an interdisciplinary body of the International Science Council (ISC), with a membership of 44 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 global biodiversity and climate crisis (IPBES 2019; IPCC 2019) underscores the responsibility of CCAMLR in contributing to climate change response and mitigation, given its mandate to conserve marine life in approximately 10% of the global ocean. CCAMLR must ensure its decision-making processes and conservation measures anticipate and respond adequately to climate-driven changes in the Southern Ocean. In this paper, we describe specific actions CCAMLR should take in the next two to three years to respond to the threat of climate change in the Convention Area, based on the Climate Change Response Work Program (CCRWP) introduced in 2018 (CCAMLR XXXVII/23). ASOC recommends prioritizing the following actions to address the impacts of climate change:

1. Enhance ecosystem resilience through suitable mechanisms, including establishing a representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs).

2. Explore plausible scenarios for changes in AMLR populations over the next 2-3 decades, including methods to evaluate fishing impacts and improve baseline data.

3. Develop and adopt ecosystem-based management for krill fisheries, including regularly updating biomass estimates, stock assessments, and risk assessments.

4. Undertake spatially explicit stock assessment to account for changes in spatial distribution of species due to sea ice changes.

5. Reinvigorate the Climate Change e-Group, including updating its Terms of Reference and updating the CCRWP.

6. Continue to work to identify reference areas for climate related research, including research specified in MPA Research and Monitoring Plans.

An appendix to this paper lists additional actions/responses from the CCRWP identified by ASOC as a priority.

2020 marks the deadline for global leaders to reach marine conservation targets agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ASOC strongly believes that for too long CCAMLR has failed to act decisively in the face of the climate and biodiversity crisis, and that this year the need and opportunity to act are critical. ASOC recommends that CCAMLR, at this year’s meeting:

1.     Adopt the East Antarctic MPA (EAMPA) with no limit to its duration, incorporating all three proposed areas (MacRobertson, Drygalski and D’Urville Sea-Mertz).

2.     Adopt Phase 1 of the Weddell Sea MPA (WSMPA) and work towards adopting Phase 2 no later than 2023. Neither Phase 1 nor Phase 2 should have a limit to their duration.

3.     Adopt the Domain 1 MPA (D1MPA), with no limit to its duration, including the extension of no-take zones to all areas previously identified as critical, such as the areas around Elephant Island, to ensure conservation objectives are met.

4.     Continue work to establish a representative system of comprehensive, adequate and representative MPAs, with significant no-take areas and no limits to their duration, across all planning domains.

The Secretariat received fishery notifications for exploratory fisheries for toothfish and krill fisheries for 2020/21. No notifications were received for new fisheries. The summary details of all fishery notifications are in this paper, the full details for the consideration of Members of the Commission are available to authenticated users through the CCAMLR website Fishery Notifications.