Antarctic Treaty System An Assessment: Proceedings of a Workshop Held at Beardmore South Field Camp, Antarctica, January 7-13, 1985 (1986) / Chapter Skim
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15. The Antarctic Treaty System as a Resource Management Mechanism - Living Resources
15. The Antarctic Treaty System as a Resource Management Mechanism - Living Resources
Pages 221-234
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From page 221... ...
Gulland INTRODUCTION In the Antarctic the living resources offer a complete contrast between marine and terrestrial systems. The Southern Ocean is rich with life -- among which krill, whales, seals, and penguins are the best known.
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From page 222... ...
Partly through the measures introduced by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) , the depletion of the baleen whales has been slightly less extreme than that of right whales or fur seals, but of the baleen whales only the mink e whale is now present in number S similar to those at the time when human visitors first came to the Southern Ocean.
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From page 223... ...
The events in the Southern Ocean should therefore not be ascribed to some unusual degree of greed or shortsightedness on the part of the harvesters; they are the predictable results of unmanaged exploitation of a common-property, open-access resource. From the point of view of managing the marine resources of the Antarctic, three points can be made: (1)
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From page 224... ...
Any participant that does not abide by these, for example, by limiting total catch volume, or by avoiding catching small or immature animals, will gain nearly all the benefits of the management actions of others, but there will be little net conservation effect. Bitter experience has also shown that management measures, as well as being unanimous, should also be introduced as early as possible, before the industry builds up excess capacity; the aim should be to have to do little more than put the brakes on development as the optimum harvesting rate is approached rather than to have to cut back on overcapacity, with all the economic and social problems that this is likely to bring about.
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From page 225... ...
It was particularly unfortunate that, after the government of the United Kingdom in 1925 had established the Discovery Committee to carry out research in the Southern Ocean in support of the whaling industry, no one ensured that quantitative studies of the dynamics of whale stocks and their reactions to exploitation were actually carried out. Scientific benefits, for example, in terms of knowledge of krill stocks, are still being reaped from this program.
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From page 226... ...
The 1980 convention establishing CCAMLR was set up while the krill fishery was still growing, while catches were well below the likely level of the sustainable yield and before there was any evidence that the volume of fishing was affecting the stock. The taking of demersal fish around several of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands had reduced some of the stocks well below their unfished level, but there are some biological reasons for being less seriously concerned about such reductions in fish stocks than about similar reductions in mammals.
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From page 227... ...
This probable interaction between krill fishing and the dynamics of whale populations illustrates two points that are becoming increasingly apparent in present-day resource management: that the objectives of management are complex and that, in order to achieve whatever objective is decided on, quite detailed scientific research is likely to be needed. If the Southern Ocean were to be managed purely in order to maximize the supply of food from the region, it is probable that harvesting should be concentrated on krill (assuming that the technological and economic problems of catching, processing, and marketing of huge quantities of krill can be solved)
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From page 228... ...
Such a narrow interpretation would ignore the very significant contribution that the Antarctic Treaty mechanism has made to managing marine resources in bringing into existence CCAMLR and the Seals Convention and in helping determine the content of the two conventions and the way in which CCAMLR is likely to operate. Though the conferences at which these conventions were finally signed took place outside the formal framework of the Antarctic Treaty, these final acts were the results of lengthy discussions and negotiations, many of which took place, formally or informally, during Antarctic Treaty consultative meetings.
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From page 229... ...
. Unfortunately, the IWC conflicts have spilled over into wider discussions on the Antarctic marine ecosystem as a whole taking place under the CCAMLR, since the countries and some of the individual scientists who take part in these two forums are much the same.
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In summary, therefore, the contributions of the Antarctic Treaty System to current actions to manage Antarctic marine resources have been very significant. Without the treaty, the different interests would never have got together to agree on a convention, and the treaty provided a model of the form of membership that should ensure a workable commission.
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From page 231... ...
This task the Antarctic Treaty, through its Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora, has done well. Three broad types of control are used: those applying to all human activities and additional protections for certain species (Ross seal and fur seal)
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From page 232... ...
There has been in addition some feeling that the SPAs do not cover wide enough areas to achieve all the purposes that such areas could serve. These purposes were identified at the seventh consultative meeting, in 1972, at which it was concluded that SPAS should include inter alla representative examples of the major Antarctic land and freshwater systems and undisturbed areas to be used for comparison with disturbed areas.
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From page 233... ...
The immediate contribution of SCAR has been in providing, or helping to provide, the scientific base for the three main substantive actions for conservation: the Agreed Measures under the Antarctic Treaty, the Seals Convention, and the CCAMLR. SCAR also carries out, until such time as the majority of the contracting parties to the Seals Convention establish their own scientific advisory committee, the functions of compilation and analysis of data relating to sealing and advising the contracting parties on these matters.
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From page 234... ...
Other SCAR groups, especially the Working Group on Biology in relation to the Agreed Measures, and the Group of Specialists on Seals in relation to the Seals Convention, have played, and continue to play, important roles in conserving Antarctic living resources, both marine and terrestrial.
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