CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP)

Following its entry into force in 1982, CCAMLR identified the need to detect and record significant changes in key components of the ecosystem to serve as a basis for the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources. The CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) was implemented 1989. 

Specifically, the aims of CEMP are to:

• detect and record significant changes in critical components of the marine ecosystem within the Convention Area, to serve as a basis for the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources
• distinguish between changes due to harvesting of commercial species and changes due to environmental variability, both physical and biological
• conduct analyses on existing CEMP data to advise the Scientific Committee on status and trends of the ecosystem and to progress implementation of the revised krill fishery management approach (SC-CAMLR-42, para 2.71-2.72).

CEMP monitors 'Indicator species', marine predators whose prey are also targets of commercial fisheries and which would be expected to show measurable responses to changes in the availability of the harvested species. In the case of krill-dependent species, land-based species such as seals and penguins are included.

In order to be useful indicator species should be easy to monitor, have a long lifespan, be amenable to repeated measurements and utilise somewhat fixed breeding sites.  

The indicator-species used in the CEMP program are:

• Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
• chinstrap penguin (P. antarctica)
• gentoo penguin (P. papua)
• macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus)
• black-browed albatross (Thallasarche melanophrys)
• Antarctic petrel (Thalassoica antarctica)
• Cape petrel (Daption capense)
• Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella).

Several parameters are monitored for each predator species. The temporal and geographic scales over which these parameters are expected to integrate changes in the status of the ecosystem varies from several weeks and local (reflecting the duration of foraging trips: chick diets and growth) to annual/semi-annual, and region-wide (the weight of birds arriving to breed, breeding success, population size).

Field work and data acquisition are carried out voluntarily by CCAMLR Members. Data collected using standardised methods are submitted to the CCAMLR Secretariat.

The integrative assessment of CEMP data will be of critical importance in assessing the combined impacts of krill fishing and climate change on dependent species and combining these into long-term management procedures. These data will also be used to inform the revised krill fishery management approach, which seeks to spread the catch of krill to reduce the potential overlap between krill fishing effort and krill predators using combined distributional data of the various krill predators and their dietary demand for krill in different seasons.

CEMP monitoring sites are selected primarily on the basis of the presence of key species, and the existence and nature of current or perspective long-term scientific operations, and secondarily in order to achieve adequate geographical coverage. The current sites monitored as part of the CEMP program are listed below.