MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

symposium 

• AT THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON • 

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS 

ON THE HIGH SEAS 

Thursday 3 and Friday 4 February 2011 

Organised by Kirsty Kemp 

Matthew Gollock 

Alex Rogers 

The Meeting Rooms 

The Zoological Society of London 

Regent’s Park 

London NW1 4RY 

www.zsl.org/science/scientific-meetings 

Image credits (from top): Alex Rogers and Fundação Rebikoff-Niggeler; Kirsty Kemp and Fundação Rebikoff- 

Niggeler; Oddgeir Alvheim; Philipp Boersch-Supan; Oddgeir Alvheim; Philipp Boersch-Supan; Oddgeir Alvheim

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON THE HIGH SEAS 

AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 

ABSTRACTS OF TALKS 

9.15–9.30 Welcome from Tim Blackburn 

Director, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London 

SESSION I: DO MPAs WORK? (PROGRESS TOWARDS 2012 GOALS and the STATE OF 

PROGRESS ON HIGH SEAS MPAs) 

Chair: Kirsty Kemp (Institute of Zoology, ZSL) 

9.30–9.55 The need for High Sea Marine Protected Areas 

Alex D. Rogers, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK 

The oceans have a mean depth of 3800m and comprise 90% of the Earth’s biosphere, the 

majority of which is constituted by the high seas. This region includes the water column and 

seabed and hosts a startling variety of ecosystems, a high diversity of species and plays a 

pivotal role in the Earth system. At present, the high seas are governed through a principle of 

mare liberum or freedom of the seas. However, the dramatic increase in human activities 

exploiting the resources of the high seas or impacting on them has rendered this concept a 

recipe for uncontrolled destruction of the natural capitol of our oceans. Moreover, the variety of 

human activities now taking place in our seas will inevitably force us to adopt marine spatial 

planning not only within the exclusive economic zones of states but beyond them, in the high 

seas. It is essential that marine protected areas form a key part of such efforts to manage 

activities on the high seas. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 

has resulted in management of some activities in the oceans. Mining, for example, is managed 

by the International Seabed Authority, whilst fishing, in many areas of the high seas is managed 

with varying degrees of success by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. However, 

conventional forms of management are often either focused upon the biotic resource being 

exploited (target species) or has a narrow regional focus. Such forms of management allow the 

degradation of diversity at a variety of levels and will inevitably end in the extinction of species 

and loss of goods and services to humankind. Marine protected areas can protect the wider 

diversity of marine ecosystems including by-catch species from fishing and important biophysical 

structure in the oceans critical for ecosystem integrity. They can allow the rebuilding of fish 

stocks with associated overspill and improved recruitment to the surrounding ecosystem and act 

as an important insurance mechanism when management fails. Science must now address 

important questions as to how to maximise the conservation and economic benefits of networks 

of high seas marine protected areas whilst fitting them into a broader context of ocean 

management. Politicians, lawyers and managers must work towards filling the legislative gaps 

that currently prevent the adoption of a holistic approach to sustainable management of 

ecosystems beyond national jurisdiction. 

For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org




9.55–10.20 Progress with global ocean protection 

Dan Laffoley, Senior Advisor, Marine Science and Conservation, IUCN, and 

Marine Vice Chair, IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas UK 

In recent decades many countries have signed up to targets for the protection and management 

of the world’s ocean. This is at a global scale, through such fora and agreements as the World 

Summit on Sustainable Development and the Convention on Biological Diversity. A number of 

regional targets have also been created within this context by country leaders working together, 

such as in the coral triangle in the Far East and the Caribbean. At the same time there has been 

a growing recognition of the need to focus attention on areas beyond national jurisdictions, as 

the footprint of human impacts moves ever further from the coast into deeper waters in search of 

resources. In recent years a significant scale-up of activity has occurred to secure protection for 

the High Seas. 

This presentation will provide an introductory context and overview to the symposium, by 

considering progress against global ocean protection targets. It will explain the current 

achievements, the amount of ocean now within MPAs, as well as identifying challenges for the 

future. This will include an understanding of significant moves by some countries to scale-up the 

level of protection provided, perhaps 100 fold, through the identification of large MPAs that are 

often fully no-take, where extraction of living resources is prohibited. The presentation will also 

touch on some of the new guidance and mechanisms that are being employed to attract greater 

attention to ocean protection, and to engage a greater understanding in policy advisors and 

decision makers of the need for urgent action. 

10.20–10.45 Quantifying the impact of the almost complete cessation of commercial 

fishing on the Piscean population of the northern North Sea during 

World War II 

Doug Beare, Wageningen IMARES, Netherlands 

Understanding the mechanisms via which commercial fishing pressures, management regimes 

and environmental changes interact with the ecology of wild fish populations is a key question 

for fisheries management science. Such questions are, however, difficult to address using 

recent time-series datasets, say 1950 to the present, because fishing pressure was sustained 

and ubiquitous during that period. The only reliable way to separate the effect of fishing from that 

of the environment would be to set up huge 'designed experiments' in which different marine 

regions were subjected to different 'treatments'. Manipulation of such large ecosystems is , 

however, probably impossible. An 'experiment' did, however, occur in the North Sea during 

World War II (WWII) when commercial fishing ceased almost completely. Using scientific trawl 

survey data collected before and after the WWII, I will show how the Piscean population (agestructure, 

size structure, diversity, species richness) reacted to this sudden change in 

exploitation. I will also comment on the lessons these observations can teach us in the context 

of Marine Protected Areas. 

10.45–11.15 POSTER SESSION (TEA/COFFEE) 





SESSION I (cont): DO MPAs WORK? (PROGRESS TOWARDS 2012 GOALS and the STATE 

OF PROGRESS ON HIGH SEAS MPAs) 

Chair: Matthew Gollock (International Marine and Freshwater Conservation Programme, ZSL) 

11.15–11.40 Extrapolating lessons learned from coastal and nearshore MPAs to 

increase efficiency and connectivity for effective high seas MPAs 

Colleen Corrigan, United Nations Environment Programme- World 

Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK 

As we move toward the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2012 marine target and the 

continued implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work on 

Marine and Coastal Biodiversity, it is clear that we are globally short of our marine protection 

targets and that a large percentage of the ocean is simply not represented in current marine 

protection efforts. Despite the trend toward establishment of large-scale marine protected areas 

(MPAs), it is imperative that we accelerate our progress in protecting areas of the high seas that 

are severely underrepresented. As technical capacities to access, research, and monitor high 

seas areas improves, so does our knowledge about best practices in protecting and effectively 

managing nearshore marine environments. In addition, we have underestimated the contribution 

of indigenous peoples and local communities who can provide lessons from their customary 

practices in governing marine managed and protected areas, as well as important socioeconomic 

considerations that can be beneficial to high seas MPAs. There is a great need to 

begin synthesizing lessons learned from the processes that oversee the more than 5000 existing 

MPAs around the world so that we can adapt and apply these lessons to the successful 

implementation of MPAs on the high seas. This presentation will explore a range of concepts 

that can be extrapolated from our collective years of rich experience in designing, planning and 

implementing coastal MPAs to help increase the efficiency toward which we plan and implement 

high seas MPAs. Insights will be shared from a Pacific-based mapping project that reviews 

large-scale connectivity across political boundaries, bringing together the biological processes 

and species-specific migratory routes that extend from near-shore areas to the high seas. It will 

also present input on the linkage between local communities, social contexts, and cultural 

customs that can influence our collective work in protecting static and dynamic areas of the high 

seas. 

11.40–12.05 Assessing capture risk of pelagic fish by satellite-tracked longline 

vessels and the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas 

Nicolas E. Humphries 1 , Nuno Queiroz 1,2 , Gonzalo Mucientes 3 , Lara Sousa 2 

and David W. Sims 1 

1 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK 

2 CIBIO – U.P., Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos 

Genéticos, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal 

3 Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, CSIC, Vigo, Spain 

In order to assess whether a possible Marine Protected Area (MPA) will be effective it is 

desirable to have an understanding of the three dimensional spatio-temporal interactions 

between the fishing fleet and the fish population needing protection. Without such reference, 

an MPA could feasibly be created where fish might be abundant but where fishing pressure is 

already low, or may lead to unnecessarily reduced fishing in areas where there is in fact little 

sustained interaction with target, or perhaps more likely, by-caught species. Ideally, therefore, 





detailed information about the movements of both fish and fishery should be used when 

planning an MPA. 

In the case of the Spanish and Portuguese longlining fleets, vessel movements are tracked by 

GPS and recorded as part of the vessel monitoring system (VMS). Using this data we mapped 

the distribution of fishing effort spatially and through time for the Northeast Atlantic, providing 

interesting insights into the spatio-temporal distribution of fishing effort. Because the vessels 

target swordfish (Xiphias gladius) it is likely that the observed distribution reflects that of the 

movements, migrations and habitat preferences of swordfish. Blue sharks (Prionace glauca) 

are an important by-catch species of longline vessels and, because the sharks have different 

movements and habitat preferences to swordfish, the impact of the fishery on the species is 

more difficult to assess, especially as there is no formal management of pelagic shark catches 

in this area. 

Satellite tracking data on individual blue sharks has allowed us to record their thermal 

preferences and general movement patterns. This information was used to parameterise a 

simulation of a generic pelagic predator, with similar movement patterns and seasonal 

migrations to the blue shark, moving through the Northeast Atlantic. Individual, annual 

movements were then ‘run’ in time with the longline vessel movements and close spatial 

interactions, indicative of capture events or increased capture risk, were recorded. We then 

placed different sized MPAs at different locations to assess the relative impact on capture risk 

for the model sharks. The results of the analysis will be described. It is evident that the results 

provide interesting insights into the effect that MPAs, fleet reductions or seasonal closures 

might have on the fishing pressure experienced by non-target species. 

12.05–12.30 High Seas Marine Protected Areas: How could they work? 

Phil MacMullen, Seafish, UK 

Fisheries are notoriously difficult to manage. With all the resources available in developed 

economies it has taken over 100 years to understand the science of exploited marine 

ecosystems, and governments are still struggling to apply this understanding effectively. 

Fishermen want to be independent and they instinctively resist most attempts at monitoring and 

control. Prescriptive management has its place but can only ever be a part of the answer. 

Market forces are another part of the jigsaw but how do we use them most effectively? We need 

to put together a package of measures and provisions tailored to work with the forces that drive 

the behaviour of fishermen. This presentation looks at some lessons learned and identifies the 

tools in the toolbox, and the factors that need to be taken into account, if we are to seek 

confidence in compliance. 

12.30–13.00 DISCUSSION LED BY PANEL OF SESSION I SPEAKERS 

13.00–14.00 LUNCH 





SESSION II: BARRIERS TO PROGRESS 

Chair: Alex D. Rogers (University of Oxford, UK) 

14.00–14.25 Legal and technical barriers towards progress 

Matthew Gianni, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, Netherlands 

Abstract not available at time of print. 

14.25–14.50 Monitoring, control and surveillance options for high seas Marine 

Protected Areas 

John Pearce, MRAG Ltd, UK 

Marine Protected Areas in high seas fisheries have been highlighted as a possible means to 

protect habitats and fish stocks that may be subjected to increased levels of fishing effort by 

both legitimate regulated and unregulated fishing vessels. The particular monitoring, control 

and surveillance requirements of different types of high seas MPAs are discussed. The current 

toolkit of potential methods and means of monitoring, control and surveillance of fisheries are 

then presented along with their applicability to the requirements. The costs of MCS of high 

seas MPAs are highlighted. 

14.50–15.15 Establishing MPAs where the high seas overlays the continental shelf 

Daniel Owen, Fenners Chambers, UK 

Where coastal States have an outer continental shelf (i.e. a shelf extending beyond 200 nm from 

the baseline), the water column above that outer shelf will be high seas. The scientific case for 

an MPA in such circumstances may relate to the water column or to the seabed or both. This 

presentation will examine the interaction between the international law of the sea's regimes for 

the high seas and the continental shelf, with a view to identifying how intergovernmental 

organisations, such as regional seas organisations and regional fisheries management 

organisations, may cooperate with relevant coastal States, and vice versa, in order to achieve 

effective protection for the marine environment. 






SESSION III: SOLUTIONS AND POLICY 

Chair: Alex D. Rogers (University of Oxford, UK) 

15.45–16.10 The economic aspect of MPA development 

Pippa Gravestock, University of York, UK 

This presentation will look at the current state of knowledge of the costs and benefits of High 

Seas Marine Protected Areas (HSMPAs). 

Marine conservationists operate in an environment where their plans and priorities are set 

against very powerful forces – political, economic and cultural. Any attempt to shift policy 

towards a more benign framework for the world’s oceans must understand the broader socioeconomic 

context in which policy objectives are pursued. This applies especially in an 

environment of scarce resources and constant competition for funds. 

The main focus of this presentation will be on the costs of HSMPA implementation. A practical 

understanding of implementation costs is highly desirable for effective planning as the various 

programmes currently attempting to establish HSMPA networks around the world move forward. 

Looking at data from HSMPA proxies, such as large off-shore protected areas and fishery 

management zones, it seems likely that the costs of implementing a HSMPA or network of 

protected areas will be considerable, not always easy to estimate in advance and likely to be 

incurred by a range of service providers. The scale of these costs in any given situation will 

depend on a range of criteria including the size of the protected area, its objectives, 

management organisations and location and the governance of the relevant fisheries. 

Not all of the costs of implementing a HSMPA or a network of HSMPAs are the direct 

implementation costs. Another group of costs that must be considered are the opportunity costs 

associated with implementation – in other words the costs of forsaking certain economic 

activities in order to create the protected area. Research suggests that the potential opportunity 

costs of creating a HSMPA network covering 10% of the high seas would be de minimis in 

relation to the size of the global fishery catch: representing a reduction of less than 1% in the 

annual marine capture fisheries take. In addition, only a handful of the mostly wealthy western 

nations who dominate the high seas bottom trawl industry (estimated to be 12 in total) would be 

impacted by the creation of such an area. 

The establishment of a network of HSMPAs should also bring benefits, including the 

preservation of a healthy marine ecosystem for future generations. Efforts to analyse and 

quantify the economic value of these benefits are still at an early stage and this is a subject that 

will be reviewed only at a high level in this presentation. 

When assessing the overall case for creating HSMPAs, some obvious questions relate to who 

should pay for them, how funding should be channelled and to whom the benefits would accrue. 

In some cases there may be a disconnection between who is asked to bear the costs and who 

sees the benefits. One pool of money often identified by conservationists as an obvious source 

of funding for a global HSMPA programme is the vast subsidies issued by governments to high 

seas fishing fleets. Achieving a redirection of this funding is not something that seems likely to 

happen any time soon – the majority of subsidies to high seas bottom-trawl fleets are made by 

countries with little or no historical interest in marine conservation priorities. 





16.10–16.35 What is needed in terms of law to facilitate progress towards the 2012 

goals? 

Kristina M. Gjerde and Anna Rulska-Domino, IUCN Global Marine Programme, 

Poland 

The biggest hurdle to establishing protected areas in the ocean beyond national jurisdiction was 

long thought to be scientific. However, initiatives such as the Census of Marine Life 

(www.CoML.org) and the Global Marine Biodiversity Initiative (www.GOBI.org) are shedding new 

light on the once remote open ocean and deep sea, making it realistic to seek to identify key 

habitats and migratory corridors. 

Challenges however remain on the institutional and legal side. In 2008, the parties to the 

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted scientific criteria for identifying ‘ecologically or 

biologically significant areas’ and guidance for designing networks of protected areas in the open 

ocean and deep sea. In 2010, the CBD agreed a scientific process through regional workshops 

to help States to identify ecologically or biologically significant areas based on these CBD 

criteria. 

While specific places can be protected through existing international and regional processes and 

agreements, we lack a global legal instrument that lays out the procedures and responsibilities 

for protecting areas in the high seas or seabed area. What exists instead is a patchwork of 

agreements and bodies that govern specific human uses, such as fishing, shipping or seabed 

mining, under the general umbrella of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

While the Law of the Sea Convention contains a very explicit obligation for all States to protect 

and preserve the marine environment, it did not provide a clear institutional arrangement to 

accomplish this. A global-scale agreement could support such efforts by enhancing progress 

across all regions and sectors, and not just in regions with the scientific, legal and technical 

capacity to manage large ocean areas. 

The United Nations has established an informal working group specifically to discuss and 

develop recommendations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity 

in areas beyond national jurisdiction. At the Working Group’s third meeting in February 2010, 

governments expressed willingness to accelerate progress on protected areas. 

Recommendations of the Working Group have been endorsed by United Nations General 

Assembly resolution. To facilitate the scale of progress needed to meet the 2012 WSSD target 

for representative networks of marine protected areas, this informal UN Working Group will need 

to tackle the institutional and legal challenges. 

At the same time, wider reforms will be needed to ensure international and cross-sectoral 

cooperation and to increase capacities to sustainably and equitably manage ocean resources 

beyond the zones of national jurisdiction. 





16.35–17.00 WWF´s engagement towards establishing a comprehensive network of 

marine protected areas in the high seas 

Christian Neumann and Sabine Christiansen, 

International WWF Centre for Marine Conservation 

Ecosystems in areas beyond national jurisdiction are affected by a range of human activities. 

Fishing, and in particular bottom fishing, has been identified as the most significant impact on 

biodiversity and ecosystem integrity; however, shipping, pollution and the looming extraction of 

mineral resources pose further risks. While sectoral competent authorities, such as Regional 

Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs), the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 

and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), can address threats to ecosystems arising from 

activities falling within their regulatory mandate, only few international bodies take a crosssectoral, 

comprehensive approach to spatial conservation in areas beyond national jurisdiction. 

WWF addresses this gap by coordinating through its world-wide network an integrated local, 

regional and global effort to establishing MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Working 

on a wide range of issues, WWF engages in dialogues with governments, regional and global 

organisations, including scientific advisory bodies, such as International Council for the 

Exploration of the Sea (ICES), towards achieving comprehensive conservation in the High 

Seas. The presentation will provide examples of this global engagement. 

17.00–17.30 DISCUSSION LED BY PANEL OF SESSION II AND III SPEAKERS 

17.30–18.45 POSTER SESSION with cash bar 

18.45 End of Day One 

19.00–21.00 Symposium dinner for speakers and guests with tickets 





SESSION IV: SOLUTIONS AND THE TRANSLATION OF SCIENCE INTO POLICY 


9.00–9.25 Minimizing fisheries displacement in offshore MPA design 

Jason M. Hall-Spencer, Mariagrazia Graziano, Emma L. Jackson and Martin J. 

Attrill, Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK 

Fisheries closures are rapidly being developed to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems 

worldwide. It is possible to create lose-lose situations with the loss of good fishing grounds 

within fisheries closures causing displacement of effort that may increase damage to sensitive 

habitat types, create unintended conflicts with other uses of the seas or forcing fishermen further 

offshore, increasing fuel costs and CO2 emissions. Displacement of demersal towed gear is 

highly likely if closures are set up in areas that are currently heavily fished with towed demersal 

gear and have conservation objectives designed to protect or allow the recovery of features that 

are vulnerable to the effects of demersal towed gear. Win-win situations are also possible; 

satellite monitoring of fishing vessel activity indicates that offshore closures can work effectively 

with good compliance by international fleets even in remote areas. Here we show how remote 

fisheries closures have been designed to protect Lophelia pertusa habitat in a region of the NE 

Atlantic that straddles the EU fishing zone and the high seas. Scientific records, fishers’ 

knowledge and surveillance data on fishing activity can be combined to provide a powerful tool 

for the design of Marine Protected Areas that minimises displacement of fishing effort. 

This work is funded by the EC Framework 7 project Knowledge-based Sustainable Management 

for Europe’s Seas (KnowSeas-226675). 

9.25–9.50 Understanding deep sea Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries in 

the NW Atlantic: links between productivity and biodiversity 

Andrew Kenny and Christopher Barrio Frojan, CEFAS, UK 

Over-fishing, together with climate change and other human pressures, is producing impacts of 

unprecedented intensity and frequency on both shallow and deep-sea ecosystems, causing 

changes in biodiversity, structure and organisation of marine assemblages directly and indirectly. 

A general relationship exists between marine ecosystem productivity and biodiversity, such that 

increased biodiversity is often associated with enhanced productivity and biomass when 

measured at the regional scale, but when assessed at more local scales and in closed systems, 

patterns are found to be mainly unimodal. By contrast, analysis of certain biotic components of 

deep-sea ecosystems has shown that functioning of these ecosystems is not only positively, but 

is exponentially related to biodiversity. Such results suggest that higher biodiversity in the deep 

sea supports higher rates of ecosystem processes and an increased efficiency with which these 

processes are performed. These exponential relationships support the hypothesis that mutually 

positive functional interactions (ecological facilitation) are much more prevalent in deep-sea 

ecosystems compared with coastal and shelf-sea ecosystems, and it seems likely this is 

associated (in part) with increased environmental stability and increased habitat structural 

complexity. In particular, the importance of habitat structural complexity in facilitating increased 

benthic productivity in the deep sea has probably been underestimated. This assertion (if 

proven) would have significant implications for fisheries management in the deep sea, as it 

highlights the importance of protecting seabed habitats in order to sustain deep-sea fisheries 

production compared to shallow shelf-sea ecosystems. 





We propose to present a relatively crude unified comparative analysis of deep-sea and shelf-sea 

ecosystems to evaluate biological, structural and functional benthic diversity in relation to 

fisheries management approaches. 

9.50–10.15 The application of habitat mapping and predictive modelling in high seas 

MPA network design: lessons from the UK deep-sea MPA project 

Kerry Howell 1 , Jaime Davies 1 , Heather Stewart 2 , Colin Jacons 3 , Inés Pulido 

Endrino 1 , Sophie Mowles 1 , Andy Foggo 1 , Neil Golding 4 , Charlotte Marshall 1 

and Bhavani Narayanaswamy 5 

1 Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK, 2 British Geological Survey, UK, 

3 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK, 4 Joint Nature 

Conservation Committee, UK, 5 Scottish Association for Marine Science, UK 

Internationally there is political momentum to establish networks of marine protected areas 

(MPAs) in the high seas for the conservation of biodiversity. Practical implementation of such 

networks requires at its base biologically meaningful maps on which to base the complex task 

that is MPA network design. Species and habitat distribution data in the deep-sea and high seas 

are sparse, therefore how do we produce maps of use with the data that are available? We 

present an example from the UK deep-sea MPA project and illustrate its application to the highseas. 

Broad-scale biologically meaningful maps are produced using a three level classification 

system comprising (biogeography, depth, and substrate) that captures what is known about the 

variation in benthic biological communities in the UK deep-sea. As substrate maps are not 

available for much of the high seas, the use of geomophological surrogates and their biological 

meaning is discussed; as well as the use of additional surrogates that may be required in order 

to produce globally biologically meaningful maps for high seas areas. Predictive species 

distribution modelling is a natural extension of habitat mapping in that it effectively uses 

integrated maps of environmental variables (‘habitat’ maps) to predict the distribution of species 

of interest. These approaches can also be applied to biological ‘habitats’, such as cold water 

coral reefs, sponge aggregations and coral gardens. Fine-scale maps of the distribution of 

vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) are produced using predictive modelling approaches 

(Maxent) and the importance of habitat vs species level predictions at a fine scale is illustrated 

using the example of Lophelia pertusa reef on Hatton Bank and George Bligh Bank (NE 

Atlantic). The application of predictive modelling approaches in the wider high seas is 

discussed. 






SESSION IV (cont): SOLUTIONS AND THE TRANSLATION OF SCIENCE INTO POLICY 

Chair: Alex D. Rogers (University of Oxford) 

10.45–11.10 The South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf Marine Protected Area 

Susie Grant, Phil Trathan, Janet Silk and J. Tratolos, British Antarctic Survey, 

Cambridge, UK 

The South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf Marine Protected Area was agreed by the 

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in November 

2009. It is the world’s first marine protected area (MPA) located entirely within the ‘High Seas’. 

The MPA covers a large area of the Southern Ocean, south of the South Orkney Islands. The 

MPA was the result of four years of development work. It is just less than 94,000 square 

kilometers, which is more than four times the size of Wales. No fishing activities and no 

discharge or refuse disposal from fishing vessels are allowed in the area, which will allow 

scientists to better monitor the effects of human activities and climate change on the Southern 

Ocean. 

The marine protected area for the South Orkneys includes important sections of an 

oceanographic feature known as the Weddell Front, which marks the northern limit of waters 

characteristic of the Weddell Sea and the southern limit of the Weddell Scotia Confluence. The 

Weddell Scotia Confluence is a key habitat for Antarctic krill, one of the main species harvested 

in the Antarctic and a key focus for CCAMLR. The MPA also includes important foraging areas 

for Adélie penguins that breed at the South Orkney Islands, and important submarine shelf areas 

and seamounts, including areas that have recently been shown to have high biodiversity. 

The South Orkneys MPA will thus better conserve marine biodiversity and forms the first link in a 

representative system of marine protected areas for the Antarctic. Planning to develop the other 

parts of the system are under active consideration by CCAMLR scientists. The network will help 

conserve important ecosystem processes, vulnerable areas, and create reference sites that can 

be used to make scientific comparisons between fished areas and no-take areas. Such 

networks will become increasingly important as climate change impacts become increasingly 

evident in the Antarctic in the future. 

11.10–11.35 BirdLife’s marine Important Bird Areas Programme – providing the 

science behind candidate MPAs for seabirds 

Ben Lascelles and Phillip Taylor, BirdLife International Global Seabird 

Programme, UK 

The BirdLife Important Bird Area (IBA) programme has been used to provide scientific 

justification for the selection of priority sites for conservation for over 25 years. In recent years it 

has been adapted and extended to the marine environment, including the high seas. 

This talk will present an outline of BirdLife’s marine IBA Programme and highlight our work with 

the scientific community to develop several datasets to help determine the location of priority 

sites for seabird conservation. It will focus on the Global Procellariiform Tracking Database and 

explain the innovative analysis techniques we have been using to identify priority sites using the 

data held there. The analysis includes developing measures of regularity and intensity of use of 





an area, concepts that we have found are readily understandable in policy arenas, such as the 

EU Birds Directive and the Convention on Biological Diversity. 

Having described the methods we use to identify a site we will explain how we go about 

describing it using a combination of habitat modelling and other techniques. The overall aim is 

to assess why a particular site is located where it is, and determining what the underlying 

important environmental variables are. This can provide vital information for future management 

and allows us to determine whether fixed spatial or mobile/temporal MPAs might be appropriate. 

We will touch on what the appropriate monitoring and management of such areas is likely to 

involve. This will to some degree depend on the species involved, but will not necessarily mean 

closure or no-take zones, but it is likely to include enforcement of bycatch mitigation measures, 

assessment of key prey species, oil spill management plans etc. 

Finally, we will highlight how BirdLife plans to develop this work in the coming years, and how 

we hope to link to relevant policy mechanisms and improve the sustainable management of the 

oceans. 

11.35–12.00 Chemosynthetic ecosystems: Understanding what’s at risk and tools for 

effective management 

Cindy Lee Van Dover 1 , Craig R. Smith 2 , Laurent Godet 3 and the Dinard 

Workshop Participants 

1 Marine Laboratory, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, 

USA, 2 Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, 

USA, 3 Laboratoire Géolittomer (UMR 6554 LETG), Université de Nantes, 

France 

Discovery of chemosynthetic ecosystems in the 1970s changed the way we think about 

dynamic processes of the Earth and Ocean and about the extremes at which life can exist on 

this planet and elsewhere in the universe. Chemosynthetic ecosystems support organisms that 

rely on microbial primary production based on energy from chemical reactions, i.e., organisms 

with exquisite biochemical, physiological, morphological, and behavioural adaptations to their 

environment. Since their discovery, chemosynthetic ecosystems have served as living libraries 

for science stakeholders, and scientific literature on these ecosystems is abundant, of high 

impact, and expanding exponentially. In addition to their biodiversity and ecosystem services, 

a major conservation stake of chemosynthetic ecosystems is thus a type of service seldom 

reported in conservation studies: their knowledge value. The potential for environmental 

impacts resulting from scientific research at hydrothermal vents motivated the InterRidge 

Statement of Commitment to Responsible Research Practices at Hydrothermal Vents. While 

this Statement reminds scientists of their responsibilities as stewards of the environment they 

study, management areas that include conservation and scientific research objectives are likely 

more effective stewardship tools. A greater level of threat to chemosynthetic ecosystems is 

posed by industries that seek to mine mineral deposits at vents or engage in oil and gas 

extraction near seeps, and by the extensive collateral impacts of bottom fishing. Oil extraction 

and bottom trawling already affect large areas of potential seep habitat, and licensing activity 

for mining exploration around hydrothermal vent systems is underway. These activities impose 

urgency to establishment of guidelines for networks of managed chemosynthetic areas in 

regions within and beyond national jurisdiction. We present a set of design principles 

formulated to safeguard biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the knowledge value of 

chemosynthetic ecosystems within the framework of exploitation of seabed resources. The 

patchy distribution of chemosynthetic ecosystems in space and time requires coarse- to fine- 





filter spatial management strategies, depending on where habitat patch distributions fall along a 

gradient from semi-continuous to highly dispersed across a bioregion. Because the distribution 

and biogeography of chemosynthetic habitats in the deep sea are still very poorly known, 

management plans to maintain ecological, scientific, and commercial values must be adaptive 

to incorporate increasing ecosystem knowledge and demand trust and collaboration among all 

stakeholders. 

12.00–12.30 DISCUSSION LED BY PANEL OF SESSION IV MORNING SPEAKERS 

12.30–13.30 LUNCH 


Chair: Matthew Gollock (International Marine and Freshwater Conservation Programme, ZSL) 

13.30–13.55 The establishment of the OSPAR network of MPAs including in the High 

Seas of the North East Atlantic 

Henning von Nordheim and Tim Packeiser, German Federal Agency for Nature 

Conservation, Germany 

The ministers for the environment of the Contracting Parties to the Oslo-Paris (OSPAR) and 

Helsinki (HELCOM) Conventions agreed in 2003 during their joint meeting in Bremen, Germany, 

to establish by 2010 an ecologically coherent network of well-managed Marine Protected Areas 

(MPAs) in the Baltic Sea and the North-East Atlantic. This commitment is seen as a significant 

and coordinated regional contribution to the agreement of the World Summit of Sustainable 

Development/WSSD in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to establish a worldwide network of 

protected areas by 2012, including in the marine realm. 

Until the Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Contracting Parties in September 2010 (Bergen, 

Norway) the OSPAR Network of MPAs consisted of 159 sites collectively covering 147 322 km² 

in the North-East Atlantic. 

With the aim to extend the Network of MPAs to the Wider Atlantic Region which makes up about 

40% of the OSPAR maritime area, OSPAR has over the past years assumed a pioneering role 

in the global process to establish MPAs in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). With 

substantial support of the scientific community, a number of ecologically and biologically 

significant areas that are representative for the diverse open-ocean and deep-sea ecosystems in 

the North-East Atlantic have been identified. The resulting proposals for MPAs in ABNJ, 

however, remained subject to agreement by OSPAR Contracting Parties on a number of 

complex political and legal issues, in particular in conjunction with recent submissions by some 

Contracting Parties for an extended continental shelf within the OSPAR maritime area. 

As a conclusion of a longsome process of negotiations, the OSPAR Ministers finally agreed on 

24 September 2010 on the establishment of a network of additional six Marine Protected Areas 

in the High Seas of the North-East Atlantic. These MPAs cover a total area of 285 000 km² and 

protect a series of seamounts and sections of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) hosting a range of 





vulnerable deep-sea habitats and species. While two of these MPAs are situated entirely in 

Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, the four other MPAs have been established in collaboration 

with Portugal as the seabed in these areas is subject to the submission by Portugal for an 

extended continental shelf. 

This ground-breaking decision by OSPAR Ministers on ocean governance has extended the 

coverage of the OSPAR Network of MPAs to about 427 000 km² or 3.1% of the North-East 

Atlantic, and it might well set a precedent for other regions working towards the WSSD goal of 

implementing representative systems of MPAs by 2012. 

13.55–14.20 Bottom fisheries closures introduced by Atlantic RFMOs as elements of 

new regulatory frameworks to facilitate sustainable resource utilization 

and conserve biodiversity 

Odd Aksel Bergstad, Institute of Marine Research, Norway 

During the past decade, efforts to regulate Atlantic fisheries for deepwater resources in areas 

beyond national jurisdiction increased significantly. Conservation of vulnerable benthic 

invertebrate species and fish resources were key aims, maintaining also a potential for 

continued or future sustainable resource utilization. 

Governments and relevant international fisheries management organizations introduced 

comprehensive classical fishery management measures, including closure of sub-areas to 

certain fisheries and practices. Background and principles underlying current regulations are 

explained and discussed, including the interaction between science and management, and 

between management organizations with complimentary authorities and roles. 

A need for an analysis of the effectiveness of the new regulatory framework is recognised. Such 

a review would have to consider the relative impacts of new regulations and other factors, such 

as rising fuel costs, reduced subsidies, and enhanced fishing opportunities elsewhere. A 

provisional evaluation of current fishery trends in view of recent regulatory efforts suggests that 

the incentive to fish unsustainably on the high seas is significantly reduced. MPAs introduced by 

regional fisheries management organizations constituted just one of several regulatory elements 

together creating a new environment for deepwater fisheries on the high seas. 

14.20–14.45 Data gaps and Quiet MPAs: use of passive acoustic monitoring to detect 

presence of whales and dolphins and to quantify human use 

Rob Williams, Erin Ashe, Erich Hoyt and Kristin Kaschner 

University of St Andrews, UK 

The MPA siting algorithms used in conservation planning software have a well-known tendency 

to gravitate toward data-rich areas. This has important implications for marine biodiversity 

protection, where the high cost of ship-board surveys often results in patchy data. When spatial 

bias in sampling is ignored, selection of priority areas will be biased toward locations of sampling 

points. We recently completed a gap analysis that compiled and mapped density estimates for 

cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in the North Pacific from line transect data. We 

found that much of the North Pacific beyond the range of countries' EEZs was unsurveyed. 

Marxan best practice requires filling in those data gaps, but there is little guidance for cases 

where ‘gaps’ constitute large fractions of the Earth’s surface. We see two complementary 

options. One of us (KK) has pioneered methods to predict cetacean distribution based on 

habitat suitability models. Another (RW) has developed methods for filling in data gaps with 





relatively low-cost field work, through platform-of-opportunity surveys on the high seas, coastal, 

small-boat surveys and recently through autonomous passive acoustic monitoring on continental 

shelf waters of British Columbia, Canada. Acoustic monitoring can detect the presence of 

vocalizing cetaceans in poorly surveyed areas and seasons, while simultaneously measuring 

ambient noise levels, which constitute an important human-use layer for measuring habitat 

quality for acoustically sensitive species. Acoustic research now allows estimation of acoustic 

space that whales lose from chronic shipping and seismic survey noise. Some policy 

frameworks, such as Canada’s Species at Risk Act and possibly the EU Habitats Directive, may 

allow this science to lead to mitigation through MPA planning. Our vision is for a network of 

Quiet MPAs. Our recommended approach would (1) map data and gaps, (2) make predictions 

about species presence based on habitat suitability, and (3) test those predictions on a randomly 

chosen subset of regions and species using field data collected from surveys and passive 

acoustic monitoring. Based on our experience on the continental shelf, we see our approach as 

one that could be transported to the high seas. We cannot consider MPAs to be wholly 

protected if the management plans ignore acoustic elements, given the importance of sound as 

the primary modality by which many marine species obtain information about their environments. 




15.15–15.40 Seamounts are hotspots of pelagic biodiversity in the open oceans and 

areas of special interest for management of marine pelagic predators 

Telmo Morato 1 , Simon D. Hoyle 2 , Valerie Allain 2 and Simon J. Nicol 2 , 

1 Universidade dos Açores, Portugal, 2 Oceanic Fisheries Program, Secretariat 

of the Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia 

The identification of biodiversity hotspots and their management for conservation have been 

hypothesized as effective ways to protect many species. There has been a significant effort to 

identify and map these areas at a global scale, but the coarse resolution of most datasets 

masks the small-scale patterns associated with coastal habitats or seamounts. We used tuna 

longline observer data to investigate the role of seamounts in aggregating large pelagic 

biodiversity and to identify which pelagic species are associated with seamounts. Our analysis 

indicates that seamounts are hotspots of pelagic biodiversity. Higher species richness was 

detected in association with seamounts than with coastal or oceanic areas. Seamounts were 

found to have higher species diversity within 30–40 km of the summit, whereas for sets close to 

coastal habitat the diversity was lower and fairly constant with distance. Higher probability of 

capture and higher number of fish caught were detected for some shark, billfish, tuna, and 

other by-catch species. Our study supports hypotheses that seamounts may be areas of 

special interest for management for marine pelagic predators. We have also evaluated the 

existence of an association between seamounts and tuna longline fisheries at the ocean basin 

scale to identify significant seamounts for tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean. Our 

study identified many seamounts throughout the western Pacific Ocean that may act as 

important aggregating points for tuna species. This indicates that management of seamounts 





is important Pacific-wide, but management approaches must take account of local conditions. 

Management of tuna and biodiversity resources in the region would benefit from considering 

such effects. 

Morato, T., S.D. Hoyle, V. Allain, and S.J. Nicol (2010) Seamounts are hotspots of pelagic biodiversity in the open ocean. 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 107(21): 9707-9711. doi:10.1073/pnas.0910290107. 

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/05/05/0910290107.full.pdf+html 

Morato, T., S.D. Hoyle, V. Allain, S.J. Nicol (2010) Tuna longline fishing around West and Central Pacific seamounts. PLoS 

ONE 5(12): e14453. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014453. 

15.40–16.05 Effects of high seas MPAs on commercial fisheries: Examples from the 

Atlantic and Indian Oceans’ tuna fleets 

Emmanuel Chassot 1 , Edgar Torres 1 , David M. Kaplan 1 , Daniel Gaertner 1 , 

Misael Morales 1 , Alicia Delgado 2 , Javier Ariz 2 , 1 IRD, Centre de Recherche 

Halieutique, UMR 212 EME (IRD/Ifremer/U Montpellier II), France, 2 IEO, 

Centro Oceanográfico de Canarias, Canary Islands, Spain 

The impact of high seas MPAs on commercial fishing fleets is a central question in the debate 

about the efficacy and utility of such measures for managing pelagic ecosystems. There are at 

least two well-studied cases of spatial closures that impacted high-seas tropical tuna fisheries. 

In the eastern tropical Atlantic, a partial temporal closure was implemented in 1996 to reduce the 

catch of juvenile tropical tuna species. This closure did reduce overall catch of juveniles by 

European fleets, but there was a significant displacement of fishing effort to non-closure areas 

and non-observance of the closure by certain fleets led to its virtual abandonment in 2005. In 

the Indian Ocean, the Somali EEZ has been off limits for fishing since 2004 and pirate activity 

has significantly reduced fishing activity in a large area around Somalia since 2007. Tuna 

catches in this zone historically represent no less than 25% of the total Indian Ocean catch by 

European fleets and are dominated by small, often immature, individuals caught off artificial fish 

aggregation devices (FADs). Fishing activity in the area has been significantly reduced by this 

‘closure’, particularly in 2008 when pirate activity was at its peak and before military intervention 

reduced risk from piracy, but the European fishing fleet has been able to recoup most losses in 

other areas of the Indian Ocean and a number of fishing boats have switched to the Atlantic 

Ocean, often fishing in areas previously in the eastern Atlantic temporal closure. These 

examples demonstrate the potential of reducing juvenile catches with large, well-placed 

protected areas, but also the complexity of reactions by the fishing industry to closures that can 

reduce or eliminate any benefits. 

16.05–16.30 Options for fisheries-independent monitoring in pelagic MPAs 

Matthew Gollock and Heather Koldeway, Conservation Programmes, ZSL, UK 

On 1 April 2010, the British Government announced designation of the British Indian Ocean 

Territory or Chagos Archipelago (Chagos/BIOT) as the world’s largest marine protected area 

(MPA). This near pristine ocean ecosystem now represents 16% of the world’s fully protected 

coral reef, 60% of the world’s no-take protected areas and an uncontaminated reference site for 

ecological studies. While the benefits of MPAs for coral-reef dwelling species are established, 

there is uncertainty about their effects on pelagic migratory species such as tuna, tuna-like 

species and elasmobranchs. Further, the majority of available data on pelagic species is 

fisheries-based – primarily from long-line and purse seine tuna fisheries. Consequently, we 

need to assess available techniques, modelling approaches and emerging technologies that 





could be applied to monitor these large pelagic predators. Additional considerations include the 

lack of baseline data, available resources and the remote nature of Chagos/BIOT. 

On the 12–13 July 2010 a multi-stakeholder workshop was held at ZSL to address, and 

prioritise, the future options for management and research in the Chagos/BIOT MPA, however, it 

was also an opportunity to address monitoring options for pelagic species in the open ocean 

generally. Expert opinion was gathered in relation to what methods would be available, what 

time scale they should be used over and how they could work complementarily. After the 

workshop, more focussed research was carried out in the form of an intra-ZSL meeting on the 

subject, and a literature search carried out by MSc students. 

This presentation will review existing and potential methodologies and discuss what might be 

most appropriate for researching the response of pelagic species to the new MPA. The authors 

would greatly appreciate comments and input on this review. 

16.30–17.30 DISCUSSION LED BY PANEL OF SESSION IV AFTERNOON SPEAKERS 

17.30 End of Symposium 



A TWO-DAY INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 

POSTER ABSTRACTS 


3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 — SYMPOSIUM 

RESEARCH POSTERS PRESENTED 

Evaluating the effectiveness of MPAs in the open ocean: how do changes in fishing fleet 

dynamics impact upon conservation objectives? 

Davies, T. 

Imperial College London, UK. Email: timothy.davies08@imperial.ac.uk 

No-take MPAs intentionally exclude fishing activity, causing fleet dynamics to change as fishers 

inevitably respond to the closure of their fishing grounds. It has been argued that in the open 

ocean, displacement of fishing effort has the potential to diminish the conservation benefits of 

MPAs, with fishing pressure continuing to impact upon populations of highly migratory species 

as they move outside of reserve boundaries. An additional threat is the persistence of illegal 

fishing within a closed area, which may increase if fishers perceive improved fishing 

opportunities within an MPA. 

My research aims to model the response of fishing fleets to a protected area established in an 

open ocean system, in order to explore the effectiveness of area-based management in 

conserving highly mobile, pelagic species. Models representing tuna fleets and pelagic 

species of the Western Indian Ocean will simulate a system that contains a protected area 

based on the recently established Chagos MPA. In addition to the current MPA fixed area 

design, a number of alternative reserve configurations will also be evaluated against a set of 

holistic conservation objectives (rather than narrow objectives related to fisheries 

management). 

The principal focus of the project is to construct realistic models of fleet dynamics, which 

account for the social, cultural, institutional and economic drivers of fisher behaviour, for both 

the legal and illegal tuna fleets operating in the Western Indian Ocean. This will involve direct 

interviews with tuna fishermen, analysis of fisheries data and review of historical illegal activity 

within British Indian Ocean Territory. Models will be used to predict the threat of illegal fishing 

within the MPA, as well as the impact of effort displacement on populations of highly migratory 

species. 

This poster describes my early findings, including a short literature review of the utility of 

pelagic MPAs based on the Chagos MPA public consultation. 

High seas deep-sea fisheries in an ecosystem context: the South-West Indian Ocean 

Ridge project 

Rogers, A.D. 1 , Boersch-Supan, P. 1,2 and Kemp, K. 3 

1 University of Oxford, UK, 2 Pelagic Ecology Research Group, Scottish Oceans Institute, 

University of St Andrews, Fife, UK, 3 Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, UK. 

Email: alex.rogers@zoo.ox.ac.uk 

The ecology of seamounts of the Indian Ocean is almost unstudied. However, exploitation of 

fisheries resources associated with seamounts in the region has taken place at least since the 

early 1980s. The South West Indian Ocean Ridge (SWIOR) is a range of seamounts in the 

high seas that were subject to a major boom-bust fishery for orange roughy in the early 1990s 

and are still subject to deep-sea bottom fishing. To date the management of the deep-sea 

For further information, please contact Scientific Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org




bottom fisheries on the SWIOR has been undertaken by industry and for reasons of 

commercial sensitivity little information is available publicly on fishing activities or stock status. 

Delays in the initiation of a regional fisheries management organisation, the South Indian 

Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA), have led to the voluntary designation of protected areas 

by the fishing industry in the region. However, there is little understanding of what is driving the 

production of these ecosystems, what the status is of targeted and non-targeted fish 

populations and whether voluntary management measures have been effective in protecting 

vulnerable marine ecosystems. 

We describe the development of a new project aimed at furnishing fisheries and environmental 

managers in the southern Indian Ocean with data on the ecosystems of the SWIOR. The 

project, funded by the GEF and implemented by UNDP / IUCN, has undertaken a cruise to 

investigate the pelagic biology of the SWIOR. Data were collected on biological oceanography, 

pelagic communities and aquatic predators (birds). Results indicate that seamount fisheries 

may be driven by trapping of migrating mesopelagic zooplankton and micronekton 

communities. Furthermore, important new data on the distribution of deep-water pelagic 

communities, including both new records for the region and new species of organisms have 

been collected. In 2011 a further cruise will be undertaken to survey and sample benthic 

ecosystems of the seamounts both within and outside of voluntary benthic protected areas. 

The project is the result of international collaboration between scientists, intergovernmental 

organisations and the fishing industry. The implications of the project for high seas fisheries 

management, MPA designation within the region and capacity building are discussed. 

Preliminary proposal of marine areas in the High Seas of the SW Atlantic to be 

considered for protection 

Portela, J. 1 , Acosta, J. 2 , Cristobo, J. 4 , Parra, S. 3 , Muñoz, A. 5 , del Río, J.L. 1 , Tel, E. 1 and 

Patrocinio, T. 1 

1 Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Spain, 2 Instituto Español 

de Oceanografía, Sede Central de Madrid, Spain, 3 Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro 

Oceanográfico de A Coruña, Spain, 4 Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico 

de Gijón, Spain, 5 Grupo Multidisciplinar de Cartografiado (TRAGSATEC-SGM), Spain. 

Email: julio.portela@vi.ieo.es 

This study examines ongoing concerns about the effects of bottom trawling on benthic 

Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME) on the High Seas of the Southwest Atlantic, and 

explores the proposal of marine areas to be considered for protection in the zone. Currently, 

this region is the only significant area for High Seas fisheries not covered by a Regional 

Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO). Information gathered during 13 multidisciplinary 

research cruises conducted between late 2007 and early 2010, led to a preliminary 

identification of areas where the presence of vulnerable organisms was considered significant. 

Great densities and biomass of octocorals, sponges, colony scleractinians (Bathelia candida) 

and large hydrocorals (Errina spp., Cheiloporidion pulvinatum, Sporadopora sp. and Stylaster 

densicaulis) were found at intermediate depths (401–1000 m), whereas shallow waters (




Seamount classification system to aid MPA design in the High Seas 

Clark, M.R., Watling, L., Rowden, A.A., Guinotte, J.M., Smith, C.R. and Rogers, A.D. 

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand. 

Email: m.clark@niwa.co.nz 

Seamounts are prominent features of the world’s seafloor, and are the target of deep-sea 

commercial fisheries, and of interest for minerals exploitation. They host vulnerable benthic 

communities, which can be rapidly and severely impacted by human activities. There have 

been recent calls to establish networks of marine protected areas on the High Seas, including 

seamounts. However, there is little biological information on the benthic communities on 

seamounts and this has limited the ability of scientists to inform managers about seamounts, 

that should be protected as part of a network. In this poster we present a seamount 

classification based on ‘biologically meaningful’ physical variables for which global-scale data 

are available. The approach involves the use of a general biogeographic classification for the 

bathyal depth zone (near-surface to 3500 m), and then uses four key environmental variables 

(overlying export production, summit depth, oxygen levels, and seamount proximity) to group 

seamounts with similar characteristics. This procedure is done in a simple hierarchical manner 

which results in 194 seamount classes throughout the world’s oceans. The method was 

compared against a multivariate approach, and ground-truthed against octocoral data for the 

North Atlantic. We believe that it provides biologically realistic groupings, in a transparent 

process that can be used to either directly select, or aid the selection of, seamounts to be 

protected. 

INDEEP – A new International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea 

Ecosystems 

Baker, M.C. 1 , Consalvey, M. 2 , Ramirez-Llodra, E. 3 , Menot, L 4 , Narayanaswamy, B.E. 5 , Tyler, 

P. 1 , Smith, C. 6 , Clark, M 2 , Carney, R. 7 and Sibuet, M. 8 

1 University of Southampton, 2 National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New 

Zealand, 3 Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC, Spain, 4 Ifremer-Brest, France, 5 Scottish 

Association for Marine Science, UK, 6 University of Hawaii, USA, 7 Louisiana State University, 

USA, 8 Institut Océanographique de Paris, France. Email: Mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk 

Following in the footsteps of the International Census of Marine Life programme (2000-2010), 

INDEEP is a newly-funded programme (Fondation Total) with a focus to determine the global 

biodiversity and functioning of deep-sea ecosystems in order to achieve a synthesis of sound 

knowledge that can be used in the formation of sustainable management strategies, bridging 

the gap between science and policy. During the initial 3 year phase, INDEEP will play a major 

role in bringing together efforts from across the globe and from a wide range of expertise in 

relation to investigation of the deep-sea ecosystems under 5 major themes: 1) Taxonomy and 

evolution, 2) Global biodiversity and biogeography, 3) Population connectivity, 4) Ecosystem 

functioning and 5) Anthropogenic impact and social policy. INDEEP will lead to the 

development of new large-scale scientific proposals involving teams and infrastructure from 

different nations and will provide the necessary framework for coordination of such large-scale 

efforts. It is the intention of INDEEP to capture the momentum of collaboration generated 

during the past 10 years of the Census to ensure it continues and grows in the long-term future 

and includes future generations of deep-sea scientists. 

For more information visit www.indeep-project.org or contact Dr Maria Baker 

(mb11@noc.soton.ac.uk) and Dr Mireille Consalvey (m.consalvey@niwa.co.nz), INDEEP 

Project Managers. 





Using Species-Area Relationships to set baseline conservation targets for the deep/high 

seas of the North East Atlantic 

Foster, N.L., Howell, K.L. and Foggo, A. 

Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre, School of Marine Science and Engineering, 

University of Plymouth, UK. Email: nicola.foster@plymouth.ac.uk 

Despite being the largest ecosystem on Earth, the deep-sea remains the least explored and 

understood. However, what little we do know suggests that the deep-sea supports high levels 

of biodiversity as well as important biological and mineral resources, and thus warrants 

protection within MPA networks. In recent years, the importance of deep-sea habitats has been 

recognised both nationally and internationally and efforts are currently underway to implement 

MPA networks in the deep NE Atlantic. In order to ensure effective MPA networks for this area, 

it is imperative that baseline information be available to inform conservation targets. The UK 

Deep-Sea MPA Network Project has, for the past 5 years, undertaken research to support the 

implementation of MPA networks in the UK’s deep-sea area. In the current study, part of the 

project’s ongoing programme of research, Species-Area Relationships (SAR) were assessed 

for data collected from the NE Atlantic during 2005 and 2006, using the freeware EstimateS. 

Conservation targets are predicted for the UK’s deep-sea area in the depth range 200-1100m, 

using the estimated z-value from the SAR. Preliminary results suggest an MPA network 

incorporating 10% of the UK’s deep-sea area would protect less than 50% of species, with this 

increasing to approximately 70% of species for an MPA incorporating 30% of the deep-sea 

area. However, significant differences were observed in species richness and community 

structure for different substrate types (based on the Wentworth Scale and modified Folk 

Classification), with ‘coral rubble’ and ‘boulders and cobbles’ supporting significantly more 

species per sampling area than ‘bedrock’ and ‘sandy gravel’ substrates. These differences 

suggest a blanket conservation target across all substrates may not be appropriate for the 

deep-sea. Based on the results of the current study it is recommended that information 

regarding species richness and substrate type be incorporated into the planning of MPA 

networks within the deep/high sea environments to ensure that the most effective MPA 

network is implemented. 

Quantifying interactions between satellite-tracked bycatch species and longline vessels 

for assessing placement of high seas Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) 

Queiroz, N. 1 , Humphries, N.E. 2 , Mucientes, G. 3 , Sousa, L. 1 and Sims, D.W. 2 

1 CIBIO – U.P., Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus 

Agrário de Vairão, Portugal, 2 Marine Biological Association, UK, 3 Instituto de Investigaciones 

Marinas, CSIC, Spain. Email: nuno.queiroz@gmail.com 

Surface longlines are widely known to interact with several marine predators, and are linked to 

declines in targeted and bycatch species in the open ocean, including seabirds, turtles, tunas 

and sharks. Many large pelagic sharks are of current conservation concern because of their 

vulnerability to overfishing and rapid declines in populations. Using vessel monitoring system 

(VMS) data from surface longliners operating in the North East Atlantic and recorded 

movements of blue sharks Prionace glauca from satellite-linked transmitters, we investigate the 

vulnerability of sharks to bycatch mortality. Longlines were deployed over an extensive area for 

a cumulative number of 17,853 days, with fishing effort concentrated in four main areas: 

southwest of Ireland, south of the Azores, west of the Iberian Peninsula and southwest of the 

Canary Islands. Tracked blue sharks occupied a broad range of sea surface temperatures 

(SSTs), ranging from 15.2 to 24.6ºC and displayed high space-use of coastal/shelf edge areas, 

with seven individuals (35%) spending at least one day-at-risk from longlines. Confirmed 





fishing induced mortality of satellite-tracked blue sharks was around ~11%, with four sharks 

being caught by longliners over the 8–120 d of tracking time. Our results indicate that different 

segments of the blue shark population may be facing differential risk from spatially 

heterogeneous longlining effort, depending on which geographical regions are occupied at 

specific times. Mitigation measures, such as the implementation of high seas marine protected 

areas (MPAs) or fleet reductions, could be put in place to minimize bycatch of pelagic sharks. 

Fixed vs. mobile/temporal oceanic MPAs: what does the spatial ecology of open ocean 

sharks tells us? 

Afonso, P. 1 , Filmalter, J. 2 , Vandeperre, F. 1 and Dagorn, L. 2 

1 IMAR/University of the Azores, Portugal, 2 IRD, Seychelles. Email: afonso@uac.pt 

Pelagic sharks are amongst the main bycatch species of open ocean, large-scale industrial 

fisheries. This is the case for the tropical purse seine tuna fishery and the surface longlining, in 

which pelagic sharks can comprise up to 80 percent of the catch. Concurrently, nearly all of 

these species are listed as threatened, owing to biological and ecological characteristics which 

render them vulnerable to the effects of exploitation. Pressure for mitigation measures that can 

halt overexploitation is growing, with spatial closures increasingly being seen as a major tool. 

However, concerns exist as to the feasibility and efficacy of such closures, particularly for 

species where individuals are typically migratory and range over large areas, including EEZs 

and the High Seas. Here we present a preliminary analysis using new and existing information 

on the spatial ecology of blueshark and silky shark, the main bycatch species of the two 

fisheries in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Individual telemetry tracks of tagged sharks and 

fisheries data are examined in order to discuss and evaluate the adequacy of time/area 

closures that could attempt to protect populations or segments of the populations of these two 

species. 

Regional fisheries management organizations, marine protected areas, and coexisting 

on the high seas 

Cullis-Suzuki, S. 

UBC Fisheries Centre, USA. Email: sarikacullissuzuki@gmail.com 

Current fisheries management on the high seas has been brought into question recently, as 

many fish stocks in this area have declined. The establishment of high seas marine protected 

areas (HSMPAs), proposed to help prevent fisheries collapse and preserve biodiversity, will 

undoubtedly require the acceptance and participation of global regional fisheries management 

organizations (RFMOs), the international bodies tasked with managing and conserving fish 

stocks in the high seas. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the world’s current RFMOs 

using a two-tiered approach: first, in theory, as determined by their organization’s alignment 

with best practice standards; and second, in practice, as determined by the state of the stocks 

they manage, and taking into account biomass and fishing pressure reference points and 

trends through time. Results indicate an overall low effectiveness of RFMOs both in theory and 

in practice, with average assessment scores of 57% and 49%, respectively. Indeed, two-thirds 

of stocks evaluated and under RFMO management are either depleted or overexploited. 

Results also reveal no connection between scores in theory and in practice, indicating an 

inconsistency between RFMO intent and action. These results were presented at the United 

Nations Straddling Fish Stocks Review Conference this year in New York; reactions and 

comments from RFMO representatives attending the Conference could also prove useful in the 

HSMPA discussion. 


MPAs on Google Earth 

Bos, O. 

IMARES, Netherlands. Email: Oscar.bos@wur.nl 




When we talk about MPAs, an obvious question is: where are they? Although some maps 

exist, finding them on the internet is not that easy. Therefore we have compiled a Google Earth 

map with MPAs all over the world. More specifically, we show areas closed to bottom fisheries 

on the high seas (UNGA resolution 61/105) that should protect vulnerable marine ecosystems, 

such as deep sea corals and sponges. For each area we have compiled a factsheet with some 

more information. The temporal development of the closed areas can be viewed by using the 

time-slider, which makes it clear that the closed areas are not closed forever yet. Furthermore, 

we have plotted locations of vulnerable habitats such as cold corals, hydrothermal vents and 

cold seeps. The file is available online at www.highseasmpas.org and hopefully serves as an 

easily accessible source of information for policy makers, scientist and other interested people. 

Marine Protected Areas as a “response” tool for NE Atlantic coral reef protection 

Graziano, M., Hall-Spencer, J.M., Jackson, E.L. and Attrill, M. 

Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK 

Email: mariagrazia.graziano@plymouth.ac.uk, jason.hall-spencer@plymouth.ac.uk 

The NE Atlantic region has rich and varied deep-water coral habitats, formed both by hard 

corals (scleractinians) as well as other coral groups. Lophelia pertusa forms the most extensive 

reefs which typically occur at 200–1000 m depth; these reefs are fragile and vulnerable to 

physical damage. The reefs are high in biological diversity, support commercial species of fish 

and include other hard coral genera such as Madrepora and Desmophyllum. European 

Lophelia pertusa reefs have undergone well-documented declines due to destructive fishing 

practices but recent Marine Protected Areas have been designed to aid their protection and 

recovery (Hall-Spencer et al., 2009). Corals that do not form reefs, such as gorgonian coral 

gardens and isolated ancient antipatharian colonies, are not adequately protected in EU waters 

(Le Guilloux et al., 2010) and the current design of protected areas does not take into account 

the emerging threat of ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which is 

thought to already be affecting these vulnerable deep-water ecosystems (Tittensor et al., 

2010). The EU KnowSeas project is bridging the science-policy divide to help with the planning 

and design of new MPAs that take into account predicted changes in ocean chemistry to best 

protect vulnerable marine ecosystems. Our analyses apply the DPSWR (Drivers, Pressures, 

State, Welfare, Responses) framework to deep-sea corals using MPAs as the societal 

“response” to the conservation of these habitats. 

Hall-Spencer, J.M., Tasker, M., Soffker, M., Christiansen, S., Rogers, S., Campbell, M. and Hoydal, K. (2009) The 

design of Marine Protected Areas on High Seas and territorial waters of Rockall. Marine Ecology Progress Series 

397: 305–308. 

Le Guilloux, E., Hall-Spencer, J.M., Soeffker, M.K. and Olu-Le Roy, K. (2010) Association between the squat 

lobster Gastroptychus formosus (Filhol, 1884) and cold-water corals in the North Atlantic. Journal of the Marine 

Biological Association of the United Kingdom 90: 1363–1369. 

Tittensor, D.P., Baco, A.R., Hall-Spencer, J.M, Orr, J.C. and Rogers, A.D. (2010) Seamounts as refugia from 

ocean acidification for cold-water stony corals. Marine Ecology 31 (Suppl. 1) (2010) 212-225. 





Measures to improve fisheries management on the High Seas 

Harding, S. 1 *, Clark, E. 1 , Gardiner-Smith, B. 2 and Rogers, A. 3 

1 Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, UK; 2 Globe International, London, UK; 

3 University of Oxford, UK 

Email: simonharding@ioz.ac.uk 

The United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982) and the 1995 Fish Stocks 

Agreement (UNFSA, 1995) set the fundamental principles and obligations for the management 

of fisheries under international law. In addition, the 1995 UN FAO Code of Conduct for 

Responsible Fisheries and associated FAO instruments further elaborate on these principles 

and obligations, particularly regarding the application of the precautionary approach and 

sustainable ecosystem-based management of fisheries (FAO, 1995). Key to international 

cooperation and the multilateral implementation of these agreements are regional and subregional 

fisheries management organisations (RFMOs). These bodies are responsible for the 

management of fisheries on the High Seas, and in the case of straddling and highly migratory 

fish stocks, in national waters. States are required by UNCLOS and the UNFSA to join and 

cooperate with these bodies and to establish and abide by regulations to sustainably manage 

harvested fish stocks and protect their associated ecosystems (FAO, 1995; Hurry et al., 2008) 

There is clear evidence that many overexploited or collapsed fish stocks are a result of the 

failure of States to comply with their obligations under international law and the failure of 

RFMOs to sustainably manage fisheries. Problems with certain RFMOs have been identified 

as the following main issues: (1) many RFMO conventions need updating to incorporate the 

provisions of the UNFSA and other internationally agreed standards and modern principles of 

fisheries management; (2) a failure of States to provide timely and accurate catch and bycatch 

data; (3) lack of compliance by States with the rules and recommendations of RFMOs; (4) a 

lack of transparency in decision making; (5) failure to establish management measures 

consistent with scientific information and advice; (6) decision making structures which allow 

one or more States to block or ‘opt out’ of compliance with needed regulations; (7) IUU fishing; 

(8) inadequate funding (Hurry et al., 2008). 

To address these issues a series of policy recommendations were developed through an 

extensive consultative process with fisheries experts, which were finalised by international 

legislators at a meeting of the GLOBE International Commission on Land Use Change and 

Ecosystems in June 2010. Key measures to improve fisheries management on the High Seas 

such as reforming RFMOs, improving accountability and compliance with existing legislation 

and tackling IUU fishing will be presented. 

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) 

United Nations General Assembly (1995). Agreement for the implementation of the provisions of the United Nations 

Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the conservation and management of straddling 

fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks. 

FAO (1995). Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. FAO, Rome. 

Hurry, G.D. et al. (2008) Report of the Independent Review. International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic 

Tunas (ICCAT). 





CoralFISH: Ecosystem based management of corals, fish and fisheries in the deep 

waters of Europe and beyond. 

Grehan, A. 

Earth and Ocean Sciences, NUI Galway, Ireland. 

Email: anthony.grehan@nuigalway.ie 

The CoralFISH project is a Collaborative Project funded under the European Commission's 

Framework 7 programme. CoralFISH brings together a unique consortium of deep-sea 

fisheries biologists, ecosystem researchers/modellers, economists and a fishing industry SME, 

in a collaboration to collect data from key European marine eco-regions. CoralFISH is: (1) 

developing essential methodologies and indicators for baseline and subsequent monitoring of 

closed areas, (2) integrating fish into coral ecosystem models to better understand coral fishcarrying 

capacity, (3) evaluating the distribution of deepwater bottom fishing effort to identify 

areas of potential interaction and impact upon coral habitat, (4) accessing the use of genetic 

fingerprinting to determine the potential erosion of genetic fitness of corals due to long-term 

exposure to fishing impacts, (5) constructing bio-economic models to assess management 

effects on corals and fisheries to provide policy options, and (6) producing as a key output, 

habitat suitability maps both regionally and for OSPAR Region V to identify areas likely to 

contain vulnerable habitat. The latter can be used as a tool by RMFO's in the sustainable 

management of fisheries in accordance with UNGA resolution 61/105.

MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

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