Ship traffic overlaps significantly with the migration of beluga whales in the Barents Sea ecoregion, highlighting the need to develop strong environmental regulations for polar shipping. Image courtesy of ArkGIS project, led by WWF-Norway. Purple and brown areas show locations of belugas and black lines the directions of their seasonal migrations. Yellow, orange and red lines indicate medium to high shipping traffic density.

Yesterday, I talked about the justification for imposing new requirements on ships that operate in polar waters. The good news is that countries with major presences in the Arctic and Antarctic agree that such requirements are necessary, and over the past decade have made slow but steady progress towards creating them. The bad news is that these countries aren’t supporting stringent environmental rules on the kinds of activities that will harm polar ecosystems the most, so even if the Polar Code is completed by the scheduled date, it might not do much good.

Originally, in 2002, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) developed guidelines for vessels in Arctic waters. Shortly thereafter in 2004, the countries that govern the Antarctic (these countries have signed the Antarctic Treaty) asked the IMO to revise the Arctic guidelines to cover the Antarctic. In addition to this, it was agreed that the guidelines should be made mandatory. The target completion date for this Polar Code was initially 2012, but now has been moved to 2014/15 at the earliest . This is still an optimistic target, particularly since in 2012 the IMO decided to delay planned work on the Code for a full year, until 2013. Furthermore, at the sub-committee meetings where the Polar Code is discussed, countries that supported the Code do not take advantage of opportunities to develop a strong and meaningful environmental chapter. What’s even more disheartening is that there seems to be little political will to include rules in the Code that will make it truly effective in protecting the environment and human life, even though they believe they are important.

One example of this puzzling attitude is the lack of action by Arctic Council countries. The Arctic Council is a group of eight Arctic countries (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States) that have come together to discuss Arctic issues, including environmental protection. In 2011, the Council’s working group on Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) issued recommendations arising from a report analyzing how to ensure environmental and human safety in Arctic shipping. These crystal-clear, fact-based recommendations are of direct relevance to the Polar Code, covering topics such as the use of heavy fuel oil, invasive species, emissions, and oil spill prevention. The Council says it is taking steps to implement the recommendations. But judging by the latest draft of the Polar Code, these steps don’t include putting relevant requirements into the Code, even though this would be the most effective method of implementation.

From the Antarctic side, it’s unclear if the Polar Code will benefit the southern polar region significantly. The Southern Ocean already has some extra protections under IMO rules, including a designation as a special area (meaning there are extra restrictions on some types of pollution and waste disposal) and a ban on the use of heavy fuel oil. But additional measures restricting sewage and oily discharges, and regulating grey water (i.e., water that has been used for washing, cooking, etc.) would make the Code more meaningful for the Antarctic – as well as protecting Arctic waters.

Arctic sea ice extent has reached record lows, and the West Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the fastest warming areas on the planet. The impact of climate change on polar regions is clearly no longer theoretical. Even with warmer temperatures, the Arctic and the Antarctic will be different from the rest of the world’s oceans, and need extra protection to preserve their unique ecosystems as much as possible. We shouldn’t waste this important opportunity to protect polar wildlife and human life before there’s a major oil spill and human lives have been lost. This means countries working on the Polar Code, especially Arctic countries and countries with a strong presence in Antarctica, should use their time in London this week wisely, and put tougher environmental restrictions into the Code right now.

Changing conditions in polar regions are both an opportunity and a threat. Credit: USGS/Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard

Scientists recently identified multiple new trans-Arctic shipping routes that will be accessible to non-ice-strengthened vessels in just a few decades., Given that such routes would have been unimaginable a few decades ago, this research is yet another sobering reminder of the massive changes that anthropogenic climate change has caused. At the other end of the world, parts of the Antarctic are also warming rapidly, allowing vessels to venture into uncharted areas and extending the season where travel is possible. Ensuring that these changes do not add stress to polar ecosystems already suffering from climate change (or put human lives at risk) is an urgent issue.

This week, at a meeting in London, delegates from countries all over the world will meet to discuss international shipping regulations, including critical environmental protections for polar regions. The meeting is officially known as the 57^th session of the Design and Equipment Sub-Committee (called DE 57) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), an international body that is responsible for developing global regulations for vessels and shipping activities. From reading the title, you can probably get an inkling about why you’ve probably never heard of this meeting or probably even the IMO – it doesn’t sound very exciting or newsworthy. Much of what it tackles is highly technical, relating to the minute details of operating vessels and keeping people safe at sea. However, DE has also been given the critically important task of developing a special set of regulations for ships that will sail in the Arctic and the Antarctic, commonly known as the Polar Code.

This Polar Code represents a phenomenal opportunity to establish environmental safeguards for the poles before ship traffic increases. Taking this precautionary approach to the expansion of activity at the poles means that instead of reacting to environmental damage (for example from an oil spill, waste discharge from ships, or emissions of harmful particulate matter), we can (theoretically) prevent damage from happening. Imposing environmental regulations on commercial sectors often presents a tough challenge for governments. The fact that shipping is already subject to regulations makes the prospect of additional, preventive rules for distant seas a tough sell. As polar shipping traffic grows, however, it will become even more difficult to put new regulations in place since companies will not want to make major changes to their operations. Better to take action now and use scientific information to craft sensible guidelines that will minimize the risk of environmental harm to these sensitive but dangerous areas.

So what makes the polar regions deserving of additional protections? Though the Arctic and the Antarctic are different, they share some important characteristics that make them more vulnerable than warmer areas. Perhaps most important, pollutants – everything from oil to sewage to food waste – breaks down much more slowly in polar waters, causing a greater impact on ecosystems. Following this, there are large congregations of wildlife in relatively small areas at both poles, so one pollution incident can impact huge numbers of animals. As climate warms, ice-dependent polar species will also be threatened by warming temperatures. But as fragile as the poles might be in some respects, they are incredibly tough in others. Whether it’s ice or uncharted waters, the polar regions throw up huge obstacles for human activities, even in our modern era. The combination of dangerous conditions and fragile ecology means that even commonplace activities have potentially enormous environmental ramifications.

The rationale for a Polar Code is clear, and many countries have agreed that it is necessary. However, despite recognition of its importance and of the rapid changes already occurring at the poles, development of the Polar Code has been lagging. In part 2 of this post, I’ll describe some of the obstacles to protecting polar waters.

Antarctic seafloor communities like this one in the Ross Sea are dominated by species like starfish, urchins and worms. Photo copyright John B. Weller.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean may seem very far away from civilization, but they are at great risk of losing their unique qualities due to human activities. Warmer temperatures and human visitation are increasing the likelihood that invasive species can take up residence in the Antarctic, and potentially cause major changes. Two studies have found evidence of invasions both on land (from a midge) and at sea (from crabs). The remoteness of the Antarctic can no longer protect it from potentially destructive invaders. Forget about The Thing – the scariest alien invaders in the Antarctic come from our own planet.

Concern about a possible crab invasion of Antarctica began in 2007, when ecologist Sven Thatje saw a few king crabs on the outer continental slope of the Antarctic Peninsula. Their presence raised immediate alarms. Unlike more famous invaders like lionfish or brown tree snakes, crabs have yet to gain notoriety as ecosystem destroyers. But in the Antarctic, cold water has long kept out crustaceans like crabs and lobsters, which cannot survive at temperatures below 1°C (just under 34°F). The result is that many seafloor creatures in the Southern Ocean today have not evolved the same defenses against crushing claws as species in other regions. So the discovery of Neolithodes yaldwyni, a species of king crab, by a submersible surveying shallower areas closer to the Antarctic Peninsula (one of the fastest warming areas in the world) was unwelcome news. This indicates that the crabs are more firmly established, and have become truly invasive. The researchers who discovered the crabs estimate that there are 1.5 million crabs in the Palmer Deep. As warming of ocean water increases, the range of these crabs will expand further.

On land, researchers have also recently found evidence of unwelcome invaders that could make life very difficult for native species. This time, the invading species is the midge Eretmoptera murphyi, and they appear to be speeding up the rate at which decay occurs in Antarctic soil. The midge hails from the sub-Antarctic South Georgia Island, but the ecosystem on that island is very different from the one on the Antarctic Peninsula, where the midge has now established itself. Decay in peninsular soil is “not very active,” according to Peter Convey, one of the scientists who discovered the presence of the midge, so the insect will introduce a new process to the ecosystem. Unfortunately for the peninsula, though its ecosystem is composed of different species, the midge can still survive in its climate. Although one tiny insect might not seem to be very disruptive on a continent without many terrestrial species, it has been well established that many Antarctic species are highly vulnerable to disturbances, so introducing a new ecosystem process could introduce a major shift.

Unlike the crab invasion, however, the midge invasion and other invasions of land species can be slowed or prevented by following strict rules that reduce the possibility that species can tag along with humans visiting different areas of the Antarctic. Even so, it’s virtually impossible to eliminate the transfer of invasive species entirely. In the sea, it will be very difficult to slow down the global warming that allows new species to colonize the Southern Ocean, so we will have to wait and see if a crustacean-generated apocalypse occurs for Antarctica’s unique seafloor communities. The presence of these invaders, it seems, only further indicates that humans have impacted the environment in virtually every place on earth, with possibly disastrous results for the world’s biodiversity.

The growing problem of invasive species is yet another reason to designate marine protected areas (MPAs) in Antarctica as soon as possible. By restricting some types of human activities, MPAs provide reference areas that can be compared with areas where activities aren’t restricted, thus helping scientists understand what ecosystem changes are caused by invasive species or climate change versus those caused by fishing or pollution. MPAs can also minimize some human-induced stressors on threatened ecosystems. Unfortunately, MPAs can’t keep king crabs out, but they can help scientists obtain a better grasp on the seismic changes taking place in the frozen south.

Limacina helicina antarctica. Photo by Russ Hopcroft, courtesy of Arctic Ocean Biodiversity, www.arcodiv.org.

For years, researchers have warned that the increasing acidity of the oceans is likely to create a whole host of problems for the marine environment. Most of these warnings were predictions for future decades as well as theories about possible impacts based on experiments under artificial conditions. Now, scientists have discovered proof that ocean acidification is having significant impacts on an Antarctic marine snail, Limacina helicina antarctica, in its natural habitat. This tiny snail hails from a suborder called the “sea butterflies” because they flap their feet like wings as they swim. They’re also known as pteropods. Whatever you want to call them, they are an important component of marine food webs, and provide food for a variety of species.

Sea butterflies are vulnerable to ocean acidification because they form their transparent shells using aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate that is present in seawater. When CO2 concentrations increase in the atmosphere, more CO2 dissolves into seawater. Increasing CO2 decreases the pH of seawater, making it more acidic and thus promoting the dissolution of calcium carbonate (learn more about this process here). With less aragonite available, sea butterflies, corals, crustaceans, mollusks, and other organisms that need calcium carbonate to form their shells are expected to experience significant problems. The ocean has already become about 30% more acidic (a drop of 0.1 pH units) since pre-industrial times. Scientists had previously predicted that the Southern Ocean would be among the first to show the negative impacts of acidification because it has a relatively low saturation or level of aragonite compared to other parts of the ocean. They estimated that undersaturation of the entire Southern Ocean would occur on a seasonal basis between 2030 and 2038 if CO2 emissions continue increasing at their current rate.

However, the researchers studying the sea butterflies found that the water in some of their samples was already undersaturated with respect to aragonite due to a combination of ocean acidification and the upwelling of deep ocean water with high concentrations of CO2 to upper layers. Examining sea butterflies from these areas under a high-powered microscope, they found that they showed signs of serious shell dissolution. Samples from areas with abundant aragonite were not found to be experiencing these problems. It’s unknown what weaker shells mean in terms of survival for these creatures, but it could make them unable to defend themselves against predators. This in turn could lead to depletion of their populations, removing an important food source for many other species. If the predictions of undersaturation on a broad scale are correct, we don’t have much time before we will see these effects throughout the Southern Ocean. The researchers also note that warming temperatures drive more upwelling of deep water, which will further increase acidity and decrease saturation in the areas of the ocean where many aragonite-using species live.

It’s clear that acidification is no longer a theoretical problem. Although the fate of Antarctic snails might seem like a minor concern compared to rising sea levels, the authors of the study explain that pteropods are an important part of the carbon cycle, and changes in their population size might affect those processes. We might be able to build barriers to prevent major cities from flooding, but we will have much more trouble changing the chemistry of the entire ocean. The future health of the oceans depends on all of us paying attention to the plight of the humble sea butterfly.

(For more information on what one U.S. state is doing to address ocean acidification, click here.)

The aforementioned countries are members of a management body called the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). CCAMLR has agreed to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas or MPAs in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica by 2012. CCAMLR members are considering several proposals for MPAs that would form part of this network. Two regions under consideration are the Ross Sea and East Antarctica, both of which are areas of high ecological significance.

The Ross Sea is one of the world’s last largely undisturbed marine ecosystems. There is broad agreement at CCAMLR that there should be an MPA in the Ross Sea. However, some countries wish to continue fishing there and only support limited protection for some critical ecosystem areas.

Also on the table is a proposal from Australia, France and the EU for an MPA of 1.9 million square kilometres (an area almost three times the size of France) of coastal area in the East Antarctic. This vast region is home to a significant number of the Southern Ocean’s penguins, seals, and whales and contains rare and unusual seafloor and oceanographic features, which support high biodiversity. This proposal will protect many important ecosystems, but excludes several key areas of seamounts (often hotspots for marine life) and areas near Prydz Bay that are important feeding areas for 3 species of seals and a whopping 25 species of seabirds.

Antarctic marine ecosystems are under increasing pressure. Growing global demand for seafood means greater interest in the Southern Ocean’s resources, while climate change and ocean acidification will affect the habitats and abundance of important food sources for penguins, whales, seals, and birds. But decisions about how to protect the Antarctic are made by the countries of CCAMLR without much input from their citizens.

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance, a group of 30 international environmental organizations, including the Pew Environment Group, WWF, Greenpeace, Humane Society International, and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, have been working for more than a year to encourage CCAMLR to seize this unprecedented opportunity to establish marine protection in this remarkable region, while we still can.

Over 165,000 people from around the world have signed our petition calling for key Antarctic marine habitats to be protected and to “Joint the Watch” of CCAMLR and what it decides to do this week and next. High-profile Ambassadors for the campaign include actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Edward Norton, oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, and explorer Jean-Michele Cousteau have joined the call.

Join our call for Southern Ocean protection – join our Watch and let CCAMLR countries know that you value long-term conservation over short-term economic gain.  To learn more about the biodiversity of the Antarctic read our report.

This piece was co-written with Steve Campbell, Director of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance. The views expressed in the post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Geographic Society.

See more photos from John Weller.

Last month, the NZ cabinet rejected a proposed U.S.-NZ plan to turn a large swath of the Ross Sea, which is part of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, into a no-take marine reserve. The decision came after years of work — both from New Zealand and from the U.S., whose scientists and officials are also interested in protecting the Ross Sea. The reason? The compromise plan displaced more fishing than NZ was willing to accept.

(See our new fun explainer video on marine reserves, and how they can benefit fishermen.)

The Ross Sea has long been recognized as a place of special scientific and environmental interest. In 2008, a team of scientists analyzed human impacts on the world’s oceans and found that the Ross Sea was one of the least impacted large marine ecosystems remaining on Earth. The importance of this finding cannot be underestimated. While the Ross Sea is not entirely untouched, it does boast a foodweb that is in much the same state as it has been for centuries. Despite being only 2% of the Southern Ocean, the Ross Sea has more than a quarter of the world’s emperor penguins, almost one third of the world’s Adelie penguins, and almost half of the South Pacific Weddell seal population. There are not many places left where scientists can study these kinds of intact, thriving marine ecosystems, making the Ross Sea extremely valuable for science. Over 500 scientists have agreed that the Ross Sea’s continental shelf and slope should be made a marine reserve.

An Adelie penguin in the Ross Sea. Photo copyright John Weller.

Unfortunately, there’s a catch. The Ross Sea isn’t only populated by the kind of cute animals that people love to protect. It also is home to the Antarctic toothfish, the Ross Sea’s top fish predator, which is better known as Chilean sea bass. Chilean sea bass sells for very high prices, and as a result several countries have established a fishery in the Ross Sea. The fishery plans to reduce the spawning biomass of Antarctic toothfish by half over the next several decades. If you know anything about how most fisheries are managed, this might not sound like a big deal. But this level of fishing will likely change the Ross Sea ecosystem, harming the very quality that makes it unique.

The Ross Sea fishery falls under the auspices of the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which manages all the fisheries in the Southern Ocean. CCAMLR was an early adopter of the ecosystem approach to management and has a reputation for making responsible, science-based decisions. Additionally, CCAMLR is in charge of designating marine protected areas (MPAs)  in the region. The 25 countries that are members of CCAMLR have collectively agreed to put in place a system of MPAs to protect key parts of the Southern Ocean. As seen by NZ’s recent actions, however, not all countries agree on what the balance between MPAs and fishing should be. New Zealand is one of the main countries fishing in the Ross Sea.

While it’s not exactly breaking news that countries like to protect lucrative industries, the Ross Sea fishery is a small portion of New Zealand’s overall fishing industry. Moreover, officials and scientists from both sides had worked very hard to come up with a joint proposal, and both had made significant compromises. Without a united proposal, it will be difficult for CCAMLR’s member countries to make any decisions about protecting the Ross Sea.

On the bright side, thanks in part to a documentary on the fight for the Ross Sea titled “The Last Ocean,” (see trailer at the top of this post) the issue has been garnering public attention in New Zealand. Usually, the workings of CCAMLR aren’t very interesting  – lots of dry information about the results of fish-tagging experiments. Creating MPAs and marine reserves are a more hot-button issue, particularly for New Zealand, with its strong stake in the fishery and an equally strong interest in maintaining the green image that draws many tourists. With any luck, it won’t just be Kiwis who get involved in this debate, though.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean don’t belong to any single country, and decisions made about marine protection there should be in the best interests of all humankind. Scientists who have worked in the Ross Sea have said they think it’s one of the last places where they can learn about healthy marine ecosystems and therefore understand how to restore other less healthy areas of the oceans. It’s hard to put a price on those kinds of benefits.

Real protection for the Ross Sea might not happen this year. But there’s still time for Kiwis and others around the world to get involved. All too often, decisions about marine issues are made by relatively small numbers of people. What happens to the oceans affects everyone, however. It’s up to all of us to make sure that our governments make decisions that consider the long-term interests of the planet as well as the short-term gain of a few.

And here’s our new video that better explains marine reserves, courtesy of Mel the “very weird” fish: