The Ecosystem approach used by CCAMLR to Sustainably manage the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Ecosystem

• Main Author: Lawlor, Stephanie
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2003
• Subjects: Antarctic; New Zealand; Roper; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/14010

During the 1970s, there was a gmwing concern among Antarctic Tæaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) that living marine resources Of the Antall-•tic and Southern Ocean were being exploited by commercial fisheries (Joyner, 1998). This concern was due to a lack of legislation that existed at the time to implement such concepts that today we ale familiar with: maximum sustainable yield; ecosystem management and environmental monitoring, to name a few. Out of this concern the Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antawtic Fauna and Flora were signed in 1964, but did not enter into force until 1982. The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCAS) was ratified in 1972, and entered into force in 1978. The main concern behind the implementation of CCAS was the possible lesumption of commercial sealing in Antarctic waters, and the lack of an adequate legal regime to regulate this activity (Rothwell and Davis, 1997). Because CCAS was designed to complement the Agreed Measures, which precluded CCAS by eight years, it does not apply to the Antarctic continent, Or to floating sea ice within the Antarctic Treaty area, but only to commercial activities at sea, south of 600 South latitude. CCAS set limits on the number of seals that could be commercially culled. (New Zealand did not ratify the Seals Convention, because it did not agree that seals should be commen:ially culled (Roper-Gee, pers. comm., 2002).) In 1975, at the Eighth Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM), the ATCPs agreed on "the need to promote and achieve.the objectives Of protection, scientific study and rational use of Antarctic marine living resources" (Joyner, 1998), ie: they recognised that there was a lack Of protection in place for these resources, and that this needed to be remedied. During the 1970s, there was a gmwing concern among Antarctic Tæaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) that living marine resources Of the Antall-•tic and Southern Ocean were being exploited by commercial fisheries (Joyner, 1998). This concern was due to a lack of ...