In 2009, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) pledged to designate a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2012.
- It divided the region’s high seas into 9 planning domains. Countries that wish to set up Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in these high seas, submit a proposal to CCAMLR.
- The CCAMLR uses evidence-based science to identify areas that require additional protection and establishes it following consensus among its 27 member nations.
- So far, CCAMLR has established only two MPAs.
- The first MPA — the South Orkney Islands reserve (near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula) was proposed by the UK and was designated in 2009. It falls in domain 3. All types of fishing and discharges and dumping from fishing vessels are prohibited in this MPA.
- In 2016, the second MPA, the world’s largest, was designated in the Ross Sea. It is in domain 8 and spans 1.55 million sq km. It was proposed by the US and New Zealand.
- In 2010, CCAMLR established a catch limit for certain areas in domains 1 and 2, located around Antarctic Peninsula, where krill fishing is concentrated.
- As per the rule, krill fishing in these areas must stop if the total catch reaches 620,000 tonnes, or 1 per cent of the total estimated stock, per season (months when krill fishing is allowed).
- In 1971, Norway became the first country to set up a 2,214 sq km MPA around Bouver island and declared it a nature reserve.
- In 2002, Australia declared an MPA around Heard and McDonald islands, which it expanded to 71,000 sq km in 2014.
