MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

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MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON THE HIGH SEAS AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 ABSTRACTS OF TALKS 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 For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON THE HIGH SEAS AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 ABSTRACTS OF TALKS 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- For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org
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