The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has been lauded as a leader in high seas conservation. Highlighting its leadership, CCAMLR joined the international movement to designate a representative network of marine-protected areas (MPAs) throughout the world’s oceans by 2012. Over the last decade, CCAMLR has been working towards this goal convening a series of workshops and celebrating their first Southern Ocean MPA in 2009. In 2011, plans for large MPAs in the Ross Sea and East Antarctic came up for discussion but their adoption has stalled due to Member States’ objections, with the primary concern being interference with fishing. In July 2013, CCAMLR’s Scientific Committee and Commission convened a special intersessional meeting dedicated to making progress on the Ross Sea and East Antarctic MPAs. Progress was again stalled due to Member’s objections and the Russian delegation’s concerns over the legal capacity of CCAMLR to adopt Southern Ocean MPAs. To address potential barriers to MPA adoption, including fishing interests, I provide a synthesis of the CCAMLR MPA process to date and then analyse CCAMLR fishing trends from 1982 to 2012. The results show that since 1982, the number of fishing States has increased four-fold, correlating with the rise of toothfish fisheries (sold on the market as “Chilean sea bass”). While historically, and in the present, krill (Euphasia superba) comprise the largest catch, toothfish (Dissostichus spp.) bring in 20 times more profit. While the MPA proposals under consideration in 2012/2013 were designed specifically to balance conservation and fishing interests, they would displace some toothfish fishing and would limit potential future access to Southern Ocean resources. The shift in balance among fishing States along with the increasing pressure to find more toothfish fisheries may be interfering with CCAMLR’s ability to effectively implement MPAs in the Convention Area.

The burden of proof is being turned upside down

Global threats to ocean biodiversity have generated a worldwide movement to take actions to improve conservation and management. Several international initiatives have recommended the adoption of marine protected areas (MPAs) in national and international waters. National governments and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources have successfully adopted multiple MPAs in the Southern Ocean despite the challenging nature of establishing MPAs in international waters. But are these MPAs representative of Southern Ocean biodiversity? Here we answer this question for both existing and proposed Antarctic MPAs, using benthic and pelagic regionalizations as a proxy for biodiversity. Currently about 11.98% of the Southern Ocean is protected in MPAs, with 4.61% being encompassed by no-take areas. While this is a relatively large proportion of protection when compared to other international waters, current Antarctic MPAs are not representative of the full range of benthic and pelagic ecoregions. Implementing additional protected areas, including those currently under negotiation, would encompass almost 22% of the Southern Ocean. It would also substantially improve representation with 17 benthic and pelagic ecoregions (out of 23 and 19, respectively) achieving at least 10% representation.

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, adopted under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, provides the basis for taking effective action to curb biodiversity loss across the planet by 2020—an urgent imperative. Yet, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, which encompass 10% of the planet’s surface, are excluded from assessments of progress against the Strategic Plan. The situation is a lost opportunity for biodiversity conservation globally. We provide such an assessment. Our evidence suggests, surprisingly, that for a region so remote and apparently pristine as the Antarctic, the biodiversity outlook is similar to that for the rest of the planet. Promisingly, however, much scope for remedial action exists.