Please join us for a seminar talk by Dr. Mercedes Santos, the National Director of Marine Protected Areas of Argentina.

From Penguins to Marine Protected Areas: How to Transform Basic Science into Actionable Science

Abstract

With the aim of conserving marine biodiversity, a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around the Southern Ocean is being discussed at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).  In 2017, Argentina and Chile introduced a preliminary proposal for a MPA in the West Antarctic Peninsula and the southern Scotia Arc (Domain 1 of CCAMLR) to protect representative habitats for marine living resources; preserve ecosystem processes; and protect vital areas for zooplankton, fish, mammal and bird life-cycles.

The protection of this region is particularly important since it is subject to on-going environmental changes and it also holds the largest fishery of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Southern Ocean. Moreover, the catch limit for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is likely to increase in the near future.  MPAs can help marine ecosystems be resilient to environmental change, including impacts from climate change, and we argue that they could be a safeguard in light of the development of the krill fishery by providing ways for krill and its predators to adapt to a warming climate under different levels of fishing pressure. However, adopting MPAs in international waters (e.g., the high seas) has proved more difficult with only near 1.5% of the high seas currently protected.

During this presentation we will surf into the Antarctic conservation policy bodies, and by telling the history of the MPA planning process, we will examine the integrative data analysis, the multinational approach given in all stages of the decision-making process, and the achievements and challenges ahead; all seen through the lens of a Latin American penguinologist who started this journey from basic to actionable science, counting penguins in the simplest way, one by one until the end.

Bio

Dr. Mercedes Santos is the National Director of Marine Protected Areas of Argentina and the Chief Officer of Integrated Science to Inform Antarctic and Southern Ocean Conservation (Ant-ICON), a program run by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (https://www.scar.org/science/ant-icon). During her time as a PhD student and later as leader of the penguin monitoring program, Mercedes has spent 14 summers in the Antarctic. She was a co-leader of research for the Marine Protected Areas proposal for the Western Antarctic Peninsula lead by Argentina and Chile. Currently, her research interests focus on the conservation of the ocean, particularly on marine spatial planning and socio-ecological systems.