Report on 43rd CCAMLR Meetings (14-25 Oct)

SCAR was essential in the very formation of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), providing the scientific basis and support for a convention that could manage krill in the Southern Ocean. Today, SCAR’s mission is to advance international research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean across a range of disciplines, and to provide independent and objective scientific advice and information to the Antarctic Treaty System, including to CCAMLR.

Representing SCAR at this year’s (2024) SC-CAMLR and CCAMLR meetings were SC-ATS Chief Officer Assoc. Prof. Cassandra Brooks (USA), Prof. Mary-Anne Lea (Australia), and Dr Noémie Friscourt (SCAR Fellow). New SCAR President Professor Gary Wilson also attended part of the meeting.

This year, SCAR had their second Ant-ICON/SC-ATS Science-Policy fellow, Dr Noémie Friscourt, join us at CCAMLR. Dr Friscourt has a background in marine biology, specializing in the application of biomolecular techniques to study polar food webs. She was recently awarded her PhD, and presented her work on the role of Antarctic fur seals as bioindicators of seasonal and ocean basin scale variation of the Southern Ocean food web. The Scientific Committee congratulated Dr Friscourt for her research, noting the value of developing novel low impact methods for collecting data and encouraging submitting updates. The Scientific Committee also noted the importance and success of the scholarship in building capacity. 

The call for 2025 SCAR Fellows is now open. Please visit our website for more information.

In addition to presenting the work of the new SCAR Fellow, this year SCAR and its affiliate groups made many contributions to CCAMLR’s work. 

SCAR introduced their new SCAR Action Group on Fish (SCARFISH), which was welcomed by CCAMLR’s Scientific Committee, with areas of mutual interest between SCARFISH and CCAMLR identified. Indeed, the Scientific Committee noted that SKEG (SCAR Krill Expert Group) had established a great model to follow in terms of advancing krill research priorities that also contribute to the work of CCAMLR. 

SKEG held a workshop (with 108 participants from 22 countries) in March 2024 on a ‘Krill Stock Hypothesis’ which focussed on identifying data collection needs to better understand the abundance and distribution of krill life stages and krill transport, and strategies for enhancing the monitoring of the krill-based ecosystem. This work continues to both advance our understanding of Antarctic krill while contributing to CCAMLR’s efforts towards sustainable krill fisheries management. 

SCAR also presented its ongoing work of the SCAR Action Group on Wildlife Health, including assessing the status and impacts of the HPAI in the Southern Ocean and encouraging members to remain vigilant to this continuing threat. An update on the SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal was also provided along with information on the status of Southern Ocean observing systems. 

Further, SCAR provided a paper on Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate change and the environment acknowledging the record low Antarctic sea ice extent in recent years and the continued warming trend in sea-surface temperatures. This report also provided an update on recent research and SCAR activities relevant to CCAMLR, including work by AntClimNow, the new SCARFISH group, and the approval of a new Action Group focused on Climate. CCAMLR thanked SCAR for their climate change updates and valuable work, and welcomed the new Action Groups. 

SCAR acknowledges and welcomes the responsibility of  representing the breadth of relevant expertise undertaken through our groups and special research initiatives at the annual CCAMLR meetings.