Ecosystems and Climate

The objective of the Convention, set out in Article II, is the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources, where the term ‘conservation’ includes rational use. Article II (3) sets out the principles of conservation to achieve the objective of the Convention as:

(a) prevention of decrease in the size of any harvested population to levels below those which ensure its stable recruitment. For this purpose its size should not be allowed to fall below a level close to that which ensures the greatest net annual increment; 

(b) maintenance of the ecological relationships between harvested, dependent and related populations of Antarctic marine living resources and the restoration of depleted populations to the levels defined in sub-paragraph (a) above; and 

(c) prevention of changes or minimisation of the risk of changes in the marine ecosystem which are not potentially reversible over two or three decades, taking into account the state of available knowledge of the direct and indirect impact of harvesting, the effect of the introduction of alien species, the effects of associated activities on the marine ecosystem and of the effects of environmental changes, with the aim of making possible the sustained conservation of Antarctic marine living resources. 

The Convention applies to all marine living resources that occur south of the Antarctic Convergence, except for the management or harvesting of whales and seals. Although any harvesting of whales and seals would be regulated by other organisations, these species are considered by CCAMLR when making its management decisions. CCAMLR has adopted a comprehensive set of measures to support the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources, a large part of which is the management of fisheries in the Convention Area.

CCAMLR implements an ecosystem approach to fisheries management by explicitly considering ecosystem effects while managing targeted fisheries. It has a number of tools to do this, defined in Article IX of the Convention and uses the Best Available Science through enhanced data collection and monitoring, Scheme of International Scientific Observation (SISO), the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP), the Marine Debris Monitoring Program, stock assessments, risk assessments and subsequent advice from its scientific working groups to inform decisions on how to utilise tools such as:

• Gear restrictions (No bottom trawling in high seas areas)
• Closed areas (MPAs, ASPAs, ASMAs, Special Study Areas, Closed Areas, depth restrictions)
• Closed seasons for regions
• Catch limits for regions
• Discard prohibition
• Environmental protection (Pollution and invasive species controls)
• Bycatch limits for regions
• Limits on interactions with protected species (seabirds and marine mammals)
• Size, Age, or sex limits (e.g. for crabs or toothfish)

Climate Change

CCAMLR has noted the potential impact of climate change on Antarctic marine ecosystems since the 1990s. Climate change has been included as a standing agenda item for the Commission since 2008. CCAMLR has adopted two resolutions regarding management in the face of climate change, Resolution 30/XXVII in 2009 and Resolution 36/41 in 2022. These set out high-level commitments to integrate climate change science across all CCAMLR activities and include consideration of climate change impacts to better inform CCAMLR management decisions. 

Conservation Measures that contribute to ecosystem management in a changing climate include Conservation Measure (CM) 91-04 (2011), Conservation Measure 24-04 (2017).

Each scientific working group now explicitly includes the mandate to consider the effects of climate change in the development of their advice to the Scientific Committee on managing marine resources.

In 2023, CCAMLR held a climate change workshop (WS-CC-2023), which examined how CCAMLR currently accounts for climate change in its management, how the effects of climate change could be monitored and how CCAMLR might respond to climate change in the future. Workshop discussions included the importance of considering 

a) different life history stages to better understand climate change effects on species; 

b) appropriate climate variables and metrics to monitor in assessing the status of Antarctic marine living resources; 

c) potential range shifts and changing commercial interests due to climate change. 

The Scientific Committee identified a number of short-, medium- and long-term actions to continue to progress this work (SC-CAMLR-42 Tables 6a-c), including specific actions for its Working Groups. For example, to integrate climate change considerations into toothfish stock assessments, a list of parameters and processes was developed (including growth, mortality, stock structure) which may be influenced by environmental variability or climate change, together with a workplan to monitor and evaluate these for change. These summaries are now available as part of the Fishery Report for each area.