New Paper Calls for Immediate Protection of Southern Ocean

Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean are best known for the beauty in their icy landscapes, otherworldly coastal areas, and unique biodiversity—including many species that are found nowhere else on Earth. What many people might not know is that the Southern Ocean also provides a wealth of critical services and ecological value to the planet, and it’s facing immediate threats from commercial fishing and climate change. That’s the conclusion of a new paper published today in the journal Science that calls on global leaders to immediately protect Antarctica’s Southern Ocean and preserve its immense global significance.

The Southern Ocean helps regulate the Earth’s climate and temperature by absorbing an immense volume of carbon dioxide and heat, thus buffering the impacts of climate change not only at the bottom of the globe but also around the world. The Southern Ocean is also the origin of vital nutrients that well up from its depths and are ferried large distances by circumpolar currents, feeding marine life thousands of miles away.

But as the newly published paper details, climate change and commercial fishing are threatening those crucial global services, along with the region’s ecosystems and dazzling biodiversity.

Currently, only 12 countries fish in the Southern Ocean, and they do so for little return. The region’s remote location means that fleets leave a significant carbon footprint just getting to and from their fishing grounds. Further, many of those fleets are subsidized by their governments and might not even be profitable without that support. And their catch contributes little to feeding people; for example, the massive quantities of krill caught are sold for use in fishmeal, aquaculture, or premium-priced krill oil supplements.

Meanwhile, concentrated fishing for krill—a shrimp-like crustacean that’s at the center of the Antarctic marine food web—is having increasingly negative effects on the predators in the region, including whales, penguins, and other seabirds. This is particularly acute in the Antarctic Peninsula. Krill also play an oversized role in biogeochemical cycles, influencing the drawdown of atmospheric carbon into the deep sea.

The paper outlines what members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the governing body charged with conservation of the Southern Ocean, can do immediately to secure the health of the Southern Ocean:

• Employ tools toward ecological and climate resilience, including finer-scale spatial management.
• Implement marine protected areas (MPAs).
• Consider and manage for the full suite of the Southern Ocean’s ecosystem services and value for current and future generations.
• Consider a temporary moratorium on fishing within the CCAMLR Area.

“This is a critical moment for CCAMLR,” said Cassandra Brooks, Ph.D., assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and 2022 winner of the Ronne Award for Antarctic Research or Exploration. The commission, Brooks said, “showed tremendous leadership in 2016 by adopting the Ross Sea region MPA and can lead again now. Given the immense global value of the Southern Ocean, CCAMLR must urgently implement tools toward more sophisticated spatial management and consider the full suite of values, and trade-offs, in continuing fishing in its current form.”

Fortunately, CCAMLR member governments can take such immediate action. CCAMLR meets in Hobart, Tasmania, Oct. 24-Nov. 4 for its annual meeting. Members should designate three proposed MPAs—in the waters of East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Weddell Sea—that would protect 3.8 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles) of the Southern Ocean, while significantly contributing towards the goal of safeguarding 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. These MPAs would also protect critical foraging and breeding grounds of species found nowhere else on the planet and help ecosystems throughout the region build resilience to the changing climate.

CCAMLR also has the opportunity this year to update the management of the Southern Ocean krill fishery. For the past several years, member governments have been working toward an ecosystem-based management approach that would protect the ecosystem against irreversible impacts.

Instead of having one annual catch limit based solely on the estimated total amount of krill in the water, the new, ecosystem-based conservation measure would set catch limits for shorter time frames and specific areas based in part on the needs of predators, including penguins, seals, and whales. Fishery managers would revisit those catch limits regularly to better ensure the krill fishery’s sustainability and protect krill-dependent species.

The authors have also launched a signatory page, inviting scientists and conservation professionals to call for stronger management action in the Southern Ocean.

“Amidst the ongoing climate crisis, and given the growing evidence that fishing in its current form is jeopardizing the Southern Ocean ecosystems,” Brooks said, “CCAMLR has the incredible responsibility to take conservation action now.”

Andrea Kavanagh directs Antarctic and Southern Ocean protection work for the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project.