Stanford researchers worry about future of Antarctic marine protected areas

A group of researchers at Stanford University has expressed concerns that efforts to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Antarctica's surrounding waters are being hobbled by political infighting and fishing interests.

The efforts by an international consortium tasked with conserving the Southern Ocean, called the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), would resume next Monday as its 24 member nations and the European Union are scheduled to convene in Hobart, Australia.

In a study published this week in the journal Science, the Stanford team argued that as a leader in international fisheries management, the commission has the opportunity to set an example for ongoing negotiations at the United Nations level to develop a legal instrument for conserving biodiversity in international waters, also known as the high seas.

The Southern Ocean is home to some of the healthiest marine ecosystems on Earth and support thriving populations of krill, seabirds, fish and whales.

Despite more than a decade of negotiations informed by robust scientific planning, the authors said CCAMLR has failed to meet its goal of adopting a system of MPAs to conserve biodiversity in the face of threats from climate change and potential overfishing.

If CCAMLR continues to fall short in its duties, it could set a sorry example with ramifications for marine protection in other parts of the world, said study co-author Kristina Gjerde, a legal scholar at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"It would send the message that fishing interests trump conservation ... It could raise doubts that nations will be able to set aside short-term national interests to confront global ocean challenges stemming from accelerating climate change."

Two large protected areas are currently being negotiated: one in the East Antarctic and one in the Ross Sea, a region that has been deemed "the Last Ocean" because it is perhaps the healthiest large marine ecosystem left on the planet.

"We've seen an East Antarctic and Ross Sea MPA come to CCAMLR's decision-making table five times now without being adopted. Next week will be the sixth," said lead author Cassandra Brooks, a PhD candidate at Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

"Each year, during the course of negotiations, the proposed MPAs in these two regions have continued to be downsized, with ecologically critical areas removed and 'research fishing zones' added."

Noting that CCAMLR member nations' positions for and against MPAs have become entrenched, Brooks blamed "larger global geopolitics" for the international negotiations to become entangled.

The researchers urged nations to find a way forward in meeting their commitment toward MPAs.

"The Southern Ocean is our best-case scenario," Brooks said in a Stanford news release. "If we can't figure out how to protect marine ecosystems there, it suggests it will be extremely difficult to protect them anywhere else." Endit