The International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) was held on May 19 – 24 at George Mason University in Washington, DC. The meeting was attended by over 1200 people, and addressed themes such as climate change; the land-sea interface; ecosystem-based management; and poverty and globalization. Cross-cutting issues included marine protected areas (MPAs); education; outreach and capacity building; governance arrangements; fisheries and aquaculture; and economics. The conference was devoted to practical conservation, that is, using science to drive marine policy and policy implementation. The most important section of the conference from the perspective of our organization (the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, or ASOC) was a symposium organized by our colleague Dr. David Ainley titled: The Ross Sea, Antarctica: Science, Policy, and the Public in a Pristine Marine Ecosystem.
The symposium in part explained why the Ross Sea constitutes a unique ecosystem on par with such famous sites as the Galapagos Islands and other World Heritage sites, even though the Ross Sea does not yet have the same name recognition as some of those places.
Map copyright WDCS/ASOC.
Why the Ross Sea?
In 2008, a paper published in the prestigious journal Science by a team of scientists quantified the extent of human impact on twenty major marine ecosystems, including the Ross Sea. Their work integrated a vast amount of data on human-caused impacts such as pollution, climate change, and bycatch to provide an overall score for each ecosystem. The Ross Sea was found to have the lowest score, indicating the lowest amount of human impact. But as fishing increases in the area, it is possible that the Ross Sea will no longer be pristine. ASOC along with David Ainley and John Weller of the Last Ocean are very concerned that this area will fall victim to the same fate as the rest of the ocean. Throughout much of the world, the focus is on how to rehabilitate ocean ecosystems. With the Ross Sea, we have a chance to apply the lessons learned from generations of ocean mismanagement and protect a pristine ecosystem. Furthermore, the Ross Sea is uniquely valuable for many kinds of scientific research, both because it is relatively pristine and because it has an unusually long and continuous history of research.
The Ross Sea. Photo copyright John Weller.
The Ross Sea Ecosystem
The Ross Sea is small but teeming with life. It represents less than 13% of the circumference of Antarctica, and less than 3% of the area of the Southern Ocean. Yet it provides the habitat for significant populations of many animals, including 38% of the total population of Adélie penguins; 26% of Emperor penguins; more than 30% of Antarctic petrels; and 21% of Antarctic Minke whales. The main fish predator is the Antarctic toothfish, more commonly known as Chilean Sea Bass. There are also several species of seals that spend time in the Ross Sea, including Weddell seals, crabeater seals, leopard seals, and Ross seals. There is a subspecies of killer whale that primarily lives in the Ross Sea area (Type C) and is thought to constitute a completely separate species of killer whale by many scientists. While many people are familiar with penguins, whales, and seals, few are aware of the amazing qualitites of the toothfish.
Antarctic toothfish are part of the family Nototheniidae, and are well-known for their “antifreeze” proteins, which allow them to survive at very cold temperatures without ice crystals forming in their blood, which is lethal for most organisms. Unlike many other fish, they lack swim bladders and instead have light skeletons and fatty deposits that help them maintain their buoyancy. They can live for decades and don’t even reach reproductive maturity until they are at least eight years old. Unfortunately, their unusually fatty tissue and large size (adults can be over 200 pounds) has made them very attractive to commercial fishers. Yet the life cycle of these fish makes them unusually vulnerable to overfishing. The larger fish that fishers prefer are the adults who are the most reproductively active. As a result, fisheries for other Nototheniidae species, such as the Patagonian toothfish, have rapidly crashed because of the rapid decline in reproductive rates. These fish, with their slow heartbeats (once every six seconds), hemoglobin-free blood, and light skeletons (which are similar to human bones affected by osteoporosis) are eagerly being studied by scientists. It is thought that by understanding their unique biology, we may be able to develop treatments for human diseases.
With the increase of commercial toothfish fishing in the Ross Sea, however, scientists have had trouble catching enough fish to study. It was reported at the symposium that although scientists regularly caught 4 - 10 toothfish every day between 1971 and 2002, after which the catch dropped to zero. Scientists consider this very troubling, and it will have an impact on research unless restricted. Toothfish also comprise part of what one presenter called a “cold evolutionary hotspot.” Dr. Joe Eastman of Ohio University explained that even though species diversity overall is not high in the Ross Sea, the Nototheniidae represent an extraordinary evolutionary success. From a single lineage, they evolved into eight families and over 120 known species. Five of these families and 104 of these species remain in the Antarctic.
Other Ross Sea species have similar evolutionary histories, in that from a single lineage they developed into a wider variety of families and species, including some seals and echinoderms. This process is called radiation, and as a result, the Ross Sea is highly valuable to evolutionary biologists, who can study the process of adaptation in an ecosystem with a well-known glacial and climatic history. It would take multiple blog posts to explain all the unique features of this area, but suffice it to say that the Ross Sea deserves to be better known by the public. In the next post, I will go into more detail about some of the nifty scientific research being done in the Ross Sea, but I hope this discussion has sparked your interest in this faraway but important ecosystem.
Claire Christian is a Campaign Associate for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), which was involved in the International Marine Conservation Congress. She is also the main blogger for The Antarctica Blog, a new blog for the ASOC, which tackles issues like climate change and marine conservation.
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