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CCAMLR
Conservation of marine living resources in the highs seas of the Southern Ocean
CCAMLR’s history
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is an
intergovernmental organisation that was established by international treaty in 1982.
CCAMLR is part of the Antarctic Treaty system which has provided the platform for
international collaboration in the Antarctic over more than five decades of significant global
political and economic change. In the 1970s, in response to increasing commercial interest in
the harvesting of Antarctic krill, the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty began negotiations
focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of Antarctic marine living resources.
These negotiations concluded with the signing of the Convention on the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convention) in Canberra, Australia, on 20 May
1980. The CAMLR Convention established the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic
Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), with its Headquarters located at 181 Macquarie Street,
Hobart, Australia.
Figure 1: The CAMLR Convention Area covers 10% of the earth’s surface.
The Members of CCAMLR
Currently, CCAMLR has 25 Members; 24 countries and the European Union. Members
contribute to CCAMLR's annual budget and form the Commission, the decision-making body
of CCAMLR. Another eleven States have acceded to the Convention.
Each Member contributes to the work of the Commission and the Scientific Committee,
including participation in scientific working groups and in annual meetings, held in Hobart,
Australia.
Main achievements of CCAMLR
1) Ecosystem-based fisheries management since the 1980s
Harvesting of Antarctic marine living resources in accordance with the ‘ecosystem
approach’ is embodied in Article II of the CAMLR Convention. CCAMLR’s management
decisions take account of the impact of harvesting activities on the ecosystem. In
order to provide information on the effects of fishing on dependent species, CCAMLR
set up the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) in 1985. The two aims of
CEMP are to:

detect and record significant changes in 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 fishing and changes due to
environmental variability, both physical and biological ones.
2) Reduction in seabird by-catch mortality
During its 32 years CCAMLR has implemented a wide range of conservation measures
to improve the conservation of Antarctic ecosystems. One such measure is the
reduction of seabird by-catch mortality in CCAMLR-managed fisheries, from an
estimated 7,000 seabirds in 1997 to close to zero in 2013.
7000
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5000
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3000
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1000
0
1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Figure 2: Reduction in seabird by-catch in CCAMLR-managed fisheries.
(Photo: Dr Graham Robert)
3) Combating illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing
Another significant achievement has been combating illegal, unregulated and
unreported (IUU) fishing. Although calculating how much IUU fishing takes place
involves a degree of uncertainty, it was estimated that fish catches taken by IUU
vessels decreased from 40,000 tonnes per year in the 1990s to less than 2,000 tonnes
in 2010/2011.
4) CCAMLR and marine protected areas
The Commission and the Scientific Committee have undertaken a large amount of
scientific work in relation to marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean
since the early 2000. This led, in 2009, to the Commission endorsing the Scientific
Committee’s recommendations for a protected area around the South Orkney Islands
(an area regulated by CCAMLR), and the 94,000 km2 MPA was established. This area
was the first MPA entirely located in the high seas, and it was achieved through a
combination of scientific and international policy work. Since then, further scientific
research has been carried out by CCAMLR Members analysing other Antarctic marine
areas as candidates for the establishment of MPAs.
5) Protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs)
CCAMLR has had conservation measures in place for the protection of bottom
communities since 2006. Measures adopted in 2007 help safeguard VMEs from
bottom fishing impacts by requiring fishing vessels to cease operation if they
encounter evidence of a VME, and by preventing future fishing in the area until
appropriate scientific and management actions have taken place.
Special meeting of the Commission in Bremerhaven
In July 2013 CCAMLR will meet in Bremerhaven, Germany, for a Special Meeting dedicated
to further discussions on MPAs in the Southern Ocean. This meeting will be only the second
time in CCAMLR’s 32-year history that it has met outside its normal annual meeting
schedule.
The Bremerhaven meeting has been convened specifically to continue discussions on two
proposals for the establishment of MPAs in the Convention Area. One proposal has been
submitted by New Zealand and the United States (the Ross Sea MPA proposal). The second
proposal has been submitted by Australia, France and the European Union (the East
Antarctica MPA proposal).