Committee for Environmental Protection XXIII: 2021 Annual Report to the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR

Cooperation between the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR (SC-CAMLR) and the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) has been steadily increasing to the mutual benefit of both. In order to avoid duplicate reporting between the two committees and following discussions between the Chairs of the CEP and SC-CAMLR, the report of the CEP meeting is presented to SC-CAMLR by the CEP Observer to SC-CAMLR and the report of the meeting of SC-CAMLR is presented to the CEP by the SC-CAMLR observer to the CEP. An agreed standard reporting template, to be routinely followed by both committees, has also clarified and simplified the reciprocal reporting. Accordingly, this report provides the CEP’s annual report to SC-CAMLR-40. Due to the pandemic, both the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the CEP meeting were cancelled in 2020. The 2021 ATCM/CEP meetings were held virtually, with less time available for discussion than during in-person meetings.