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 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 SESSION IV (cont): SOLUTIONS AND THE TRANSLATION OF SCIENCE INTO POLICY 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 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 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 For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org
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MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

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