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From Monday, 22 October 2018, the CCAMLR’s Scientific Committee will convene, and from 29 October to 2 November, the Commission will meet. At both assemblies, the application for MPA status for the Weddell Sea – among other topics – will be on the agenda, and experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) will be actively involved. The ultimate goal is to establish several Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) throughout the Antarctic. In this way, protected status could be attained e.g. for regions that, in the course of global warming and accompanying loss of sea-ice cover, will likely face increased pressure from the fishing industry in the future. Since the founding of the AWI in 1980, its researchers have engaged in research expeditions to the Weddell Sea on a regular basis. “Accordingly, the Commission invited Germany to prepare the application for the Weddell Sea,” explains AWI biologist Prof. Thomas Brey, who, along with his team, accepted the task on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. In 2013 the researchers began gathering and analysing data, and preparing the application, which the European Union submitted to the CCAMLR in 2016.

Regarding what will likely happen during the meeting of the Scientific Committee, Thomas Brey predicts, “There will continue to be an intensive exchange of arguments at the scientific level.” The Committee advises the Commission, whose political members will meet from 29 October. “Whether or not the proposal will pass is first and foremost a matter of international politics,” the biologist claims. Gauging the time scale involved, he adds, “If you take the Ross Sea as an example, then we most likely have half the journey behind us.” Last year, the CCAMLR established a large MPA in the Ross Sea, after nearly ten years of negotiations.