Analysis of the conservation objectives coverage and HS recommendations to support the Domain 1 MPA proposal

Following the recommendations of the Harmonisation Symposium (HS), we recalculated target coverage of Domain 1 Marine Protected Area (D1MPA) objectives (including those updated in WG-EMM 2024/27) - paying particular attention to the case of breeding Pygoscelis penguins - and considered the consequences of applying a staged approach for the establishment of the D1MPA. We found that the D1MPA HS scenario still maximizes the achievement of target coverage. Conservation objects that did not reach their target were mostly those with large ranges or highly pelagic, that still had, generally, between 15% to 30% of coverage. Breeding Pygoscelis penguins are overall well covered, but chinstrap penguins under the Important Breeding Area criteria (IBA) are not well covered if subarea 48.2 is not considered. The IBA criteria makes sense for chinstrap penguins, as the larger colonies are experiencing fast decreases, therefore reducing potential interference from fishing on large colonies might be beneficial. Considering that, we recommend the adoption of the D1MPA as proposed in CCAMLR-43/27, which has a few modifications in relation to the scenario discussed during the HS and with the inclusion of the Subarea 48.2 (GPZ-SOI) as it maximizes the protection for Pygoscelis penguins. Finally, we argued that the discussed buffers in Management Units South Shetland Island West SSIW (15 km) and Bransfield Strait BS (5 km) could be reconsidered.