South Georgia implements additional measures to safeguard Marine Protected Area
The United Kingdom Minister for the Overseas Territories Mark Simmonds welcomed the announcement of a set of additional measures to safeguard the sustainable-use Marine Protected Area (MPA) around the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
This is an important part of the long term environmental strategy to protect the unique ecosystem of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
The new measures, announced by the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, include seasonal closures, a ban on all bottom fishing deeper than 2.250 meters, and additional closed areas within the existing MPA, which already covers over 1,000,000 km².
They will be monitored through a series of scientific programs and enforced by a dedicated patrol vessel designed to ensure sustainable management of fishing activity. The new measures will further protect biodiversity in the Southern Ocean and will reinforce South Georgia’s position as one of the highest scoring Marine Stewardship Council certified fisheries in the world.
Speaking after the announcement, Mark Simmonds said that he welcomed the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands’ announcement to create additional measures to look after their Marine Protected Area.
“Their high standard of environmental stewardship and marine protection is crucial in protecting the unique and internationally important biodiversity in the Southern Ocean. I am delighted that the Government of the Territory continues to be among the world leaders in delivering marine and environmental protection.”
The additional measures will add extra protection to the SGSSI MPA, which was created in February 2012 and covers over one million km2 of the highly productive waters around the islands.
The new measures establish:
• A seasonal closure of the fishery for Antarctic krill (from November 1st until March 31st) to avoid competition with krill eating predators (particularly penguins & fur seals) during the breeding season;
• Twelve nautical mile pelagic no-take zones around each of the South Sandwich Islands, protecting 18,042 km2, including important feeding areas of chinstrap and Adelie penguins;
• A ban on all bottom fishing deeper than 2.250 m, which covers 920,000 km2 (an area similar to the size of Spain), to protect deep-water habitats;
• Additional closed areas to protect sensitive benthic fauna and provide refugia for the highly valuable Patagonian toothfish, covering 12.662 km2 (approximately the size of Northern Ireland).
Fishing shallower than 700 metres was already prohibited, meaning that only 83.500 km2 (8%) of the sea-floor is available for bottom fishing. Bottom trawling was already banned throughout the MPA.
Nigel Haywood, Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, stated that “the waters around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are among the most productive in the Southern Ocean, with very high biodiversity. We remain committed to the highest standards of environmental management in this unique and globally important UK Overseas Territory.
Following the establishment of the MPA in February 2012, we have sought expert scientific advice and consulted widely to ensure that the waters around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are one of the best managed maritime areas in the world.”
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31 comments Feed
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And a very commendable deed too!
It looks beautiful doesn't it?? and what a view!!
I think this is as close to perfection as we are going to get on this Earth.. One day... One day I would love to visit South Georgia and the Falklands.. One day!!
she will ruin it beauty .
Also hard to paint the UK as some rapacious imperial power that is destroying the region from afar.
(Thanks Saphira)
...unless they have something totally evil in store involving that fish. Mounting friggin' lasers on their friggin' heads perhaps? But I'm still waiting for the Squid Launcher from the Falklands to counter Brazil's Piranha Gun.
“UK government proposals a ploy to block displaced Chagossians from returning to their homeland”
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/29/chagos-island-marine-reserve-plans
Thieves need to return stolen land not to turn them into fake protected areas.
It is difficult to understand what you are actually referencing by your ill-educated post, if you are trying to infer that South Georgia was stolen, please explain, and try to use verifiable facts. If you can’t complete this challenge, you are prejudiced, ignorant, brainwashed or an agent of the Argentine propaganda machine (my guess is the latter but of course you might just be fatuous).
I know... I'll jump off topic and post an article that is 3 years old to distract everyone because I lack any ability to argue or even discuss the topic at hand.
Such a ploy will never be seen through and everyone will fail to notice that I am a vacuous simpleton that is so disempowered by a foreign country that I can't envisage my life as complete until I can finally convince someone of the grave injustice that remain hidden from the world by this country.
So I am guessing that you fully support the UK's actions in expelling the Chagossians and denying them the ability to live on the islands with their own culture?
WTF are you on?
What did this to your mind?
You seem a little slow on the uptake mate.
puerto argentino? I'll puerto argentino you ma lad!!!
CFK “The British are militarizing the South Atlantic toothfish”
Ok Marcos I'll bite, how exactly does your claim to South Georgia work? Had an argie even set foot on South Georgia before 1982?
Did they manage to take it away?
Maybe that's the basis of their claim?
In this particular case, the island is theirs because a Norwegian whaler who took a lease from the UK in the early 1900s had an office in Buenos Aries.
It's useless trying to communicate with them, they can't understand logic, and have no capability to understand history.
It's square kilometers, not square meters you argie imbecile.
m2 or Km2 is the same aptitude steal, steal, steal, ...asshole Pirates! You come to me correct Imbecile.
It's logic, Jim, but not as we know it.
Interestingly enough, Think himself has recently discarded the pretence of rational argument and resorted to basic knee jerk gringophobia. Faute de mieux, I guess. But then the question is, whether gringophobia is a product of actual, or of local cultural and political considerations.
Best he has been able to come up when asked to justify the RG claim to South Georgia has been 'its difficult'.
Click link below to read:
- Next Commissioner Announced
- Invasion Of South Georgia - Thatcher’s Worst Moment
- Shipping News
- Worsley’s Almanac Returns To The Island
- Far-flung Jurisdiction Visit
- Mountains - New Stamp Issue
- Bird Island Diary
- South Georgia Snippets
www.sgisland.gs/index.php/%28h%29South_Georgia_Newsletter%2C_December_2012?useskin=
If link broken, go to homepage and in left frame click on news+events: www.sgisland.gs
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