commission operates under the Antarctic Treaty,
an agreement signed in 1959 by 12 nations that
shelved their territorial disputes and devoted
Antarctica to peace and science. Commission
membership now stands at 25 countries and the
European Union.
Nearly two decades ago, the commission
pledged to form a network of protected areas in
the Southern Ocean.
The first, established in 2009, safeguarded
waters off the South Orkney Islands, 375 miles
northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The second, finalized in 2016, set aside part of
the Ross Sea, on the other side of the continent.
The commission was to consider the western
Antarctic Peninsula proposal and two others at
its annual meeting, in late October 2021.
The proposed measures for the western Ant-
arctic Peninsula would keep krill boats away from
the most important waters identified for wild-
life within four general protection zones. The
largest is in the south, an area that hasn’t been
exploited, because it’s covered in sea ice. It would
be off-limits to commercial fishing in the future,
even if the ice melts enough to make commer-
cial fishing possible. The rest of the protections
would designate a zone where krill fishing could
continue under renewed regulations.THE FIRST STEPS in setting up an MPA involve
gathering scientific data on what’s there. Start-
ing in 2012, scientists from Argentina and Chile
led that effort for the Antarctic Peninsula MPA,
bringing together experts from around the
world. This is an intensively studied part of
the continent, with most research bases dotted
along the peninsula’s west coast and islands. To
identify priority areas for protection, computer
software analyzed volumes of information accu-
mulated on the animals that live, eat, and breed
in this part of the Southern Ocean.
The Argentine and Chilean delegations sought
input from other nations that are members of
the commission. “One of our most important
goals was to try to build a collective vision,” says
Mercedes Santos, a marine biologist who par-
ticipated in the process as a researcher with the
Argentine Antarctic Institute, under the Argen-
tine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
One objective is to help ensure the resilience
of the peninsula’s ecosystems to the changing
climate, primarily by regulating where fishing
takes place. This is especially important in
the Southern Ocean, where so many animals
depend on krill.
“An MPA will not prevent the impact of cli-
mate change but will reduce the stress on the
ecosystem,” Santos says.
The commission has set an annual krill quota
for waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula
of 171,000 tons—less than one percent of the
estimated standing stock, as fisheries managers
refer to the total biomass. Overall, experts say,
that should be an ecologically sustainable fish-
ery, with a caveat: Krill fishing must be targeted.
“For the penguins whose krill supply has
dried up, it matters absolutely nothing to them
that the krill that was taken was a small per-
centage of all the krill available in that region,”
Lynch says.AN ICY WORLD IN MELTDOWN 117