| Summary: | The Antarctic region and its surrounding ocean experience numerous threats including human activities, invasive species, illegal fishing, pollution, and climate change. To help protect the Antarctic environment a system of international governance for the area south of 60°S latitude was created, the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). The ATS is comprised of several agreements including the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convention). In Annex 2 to the Protocol on Environmental Protection, Specially Protected Species (SPS) designation is stipulated, a status granted only to the Ross Seal (Ommatophoca rossii). In this thesis, it is intended to (i) understand the conservation and protection status of Antarctic marine species, (ii) to comment on their risk of extinction attributed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and (iii) to determine if any of these species should be included or excluded from the SPS list. Data obtained from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species website was filtered to obtain a list of species whose geographic range overlapped with the Antarctic Treaty area and/or with the CAMLR Convention area and that were classified as “Near Threatened” or above by the IUCN. This resulted in a list of 13 species of which the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) and the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) where chosen to evaluate and compare their conservation status with that of the Ross seal using a list of life-history traits and demographic parameters. The results of this study show that of the 13 species classified as “Near Threatened”, or above by the IUCN none has SPS status. It was also found that the information about this species available in the IUCN is significantly different from that currently available in the scientific literature. Furthermore, it was also found that the Antarctic Treaty only protects around two ...
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