Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources: a commentary

Abstract

The text of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which was adopted at the close of a diplomatic conference at Canberra on 21 May 1980, is reproduced elsewhere in this number of Polar Record (see p 383–95). The aim of this commentary is briefly to describe the purposes which the Convention was intended by its negotiators to fulfil, to indicate how those purposes are reflected in the text of the Convention, and to explain where the Convention will fit in the overall scheme of international Antarctic conservation agreements that have come into being over the last 50 years.

A bioenergetics model for estimating prey consumption by an Adélie penguin population in East Antarctica

“…CCAMLR 51 has adopted an ecosystem-based approach to management, whereby catch limits are set to 52 account for the propagating effects that harvesting might have on dependent predators. 53 (Edwards & Heap 1981). CCAMLR's approach follows the precautionary principle: 54 harvesting decisions need to take into account predator-prey interactions and to account 55 for uncertainty in the system being managed.…”

Global Biodiversity

“…Once again the Antarctica Treaty System provided the framework and negotiations began in 1977, followed by seven official meetings and consultations on the proposed convention (Edwards and Heap, 1980). The two central concerns that shaped the resulting convention were the role played by krill in the food chain in the Ant;irctic region and the ever-present conflict of the territorial claims.…”

“…Therefore, even though the ostensible purpose of the negotiations was to protect krill from overexploitation, the main concern was for the effects that overharvesting would have on other species in the Antarctic. This concern is reflected in CCAMLR in the 'ecosystem approach' adopted by the convention (Edwards and Heap, 1980).…”

CCAMLR and its approaches to management of the krill fishery

“…The prime motivation for the negotiation of this convention was '...to establish some form of regulation for the harvesting of krill and other Antarctic fisheries' (Triggs 1987). Most authorities accept that regulation of the fishery of krill Euphausia superba Dana (the only species of euphausiid harvested in Antarctic waters) was of utmost importance to the Convention (Edwards and Heap 1981;Brown and Manheim 1984). Lystcr (1985) states that 'The negotiators of CCAMLR were primarily concerned about krill', and indeed CCAMLR is referred to in some countries as the 'krill Convention' (Fcrnholm and Rudback 1989).…”