Designation of Marine Protected Areas in Antarctic Waters

Over the last few years, the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in Antarctica has been the subject of active discussion. This issue was widely discussed at the last meeting of the CCAMLR Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring (WG-EMM-12); it has been the subject of voluminous documents prepared by CCAMLR Members, and also workshop reports of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC). This is indicative of the broad public interest in the subject, and also the continuously increasing scope of proposed actions.