The first high seas MPA in the Antarctic region has been declared inan area south of the South Orkney Islands. The proposal wassuccessfully pitched by the UK delegation to the meetings last week ofthe Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine LivingResources (CCAMLR) in Tasmania. The South Orkneys MPA is situated inthe northern Weddell Sea, east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula -a prime area for feeding humpback whales.
At just under 94,000 sq kms, the protection of the South Orkneys MPA isof a significant size. Overnight the global area of protected waters,with this announcement, increases by 4% according to Louisa Wood, fromthe IUCN Global Marine Programme. The global area of protected watersnow stands at 0.92% of the world ocean - still far behind the land withas much as 12% protected, according to some estimates.
The formalprotection becomes effective in May 2010. No fishing activities and nodischarge or refuse disposal from fishing vessels will be allowed inthe area. The British Antarctic Survey plans to continue its researchin the area, seeing the MPA designation as an opportunity to improveits monitoring of the effects of human activities and climate change onthe Southern Ocean.
"This is a step in the right direction forlong-awaited protection of the marine component of the Antarctic MarineRegion," said Erich Hoyt, Research Fellow and Critical Habitat MPAProgramme Lead for WDCS. "We still have a very long way to go. The muchlarger proposed Ross Sea MPA on the other side of Antarctica urgentlyneeds the same sort of protection. But the UK government is to beapplauded for its work in submitting the proposal and CCAMLR, theAntarctic Conservation body, for approving it. Now what we need is anacceleration of this high seas protection in the Antarctic andelsewhere around the world."