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A Marine Protected Area (MPA) covering a large area of the Southern Ocean south of the South Orkney Islands was declared at the 28th annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).  The South Orkney Islands MPA encompasses an area of nearly 94 000 square kilometres.  It will come into force in May 2010.

The new MPA will prohibit all fishing activities, as well as waste disposal and discharge from fishing vessels within its boundaries, and will allow for improved coordination of scientific research activities.  The South Orkneys MPA will be the world’s first entirely High Seas Marine Protected Area.

The new MPA will give added protection to a number of ACAP-listed species that forage within the area, including Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris and Grey-headed T. chrysostoma albatrosses and the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus.  The Southern Giant Petrel is the only ACAP-listed species that breeds within the Antarctic Treaty Area, including on the South Orkney Islands (click here).

See also:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_bas/news/news_story.php?id=1054

and

http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/world/2333-antarctic-commission-approves-establishment-of-south-orkney-marine-protected-area.html