Tracking penguins information and MPAs in the SW Atlantic

GARCÍA BORBOROGLU, PABLO; BOERSMA, DEE

Bristol

Congreso; Creating the tools to identify Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas as precursors for the creation of marine protection and reserves of relevance to penguins.; 2013

University of Bristol

Human populations depend upon the World Ocean for important and valuable goods, benefits and services; however humans have altered the very ocean ecosystems upon which they, and other species depend. For example, humans have depleted marine fish stocks across the planet and even changed our baseline perception of what a healthy marine ecosystem might look like. Anthropogenically induced climate change is also thought to be altering the state of the World Ocean in ways so far unprecedented in recent millennia. Penguins exemplify many of the problems faced by other marine taxa. They have been described as sentinels, providing indications of ecosystem status and health. We know that some penguin populations are changing. In the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic the Pygoscelids and the Aptenodyptids exemplify current winners and losers. For example, at some locations gentoos and kings are showing population increases and range expansion whilst chinstraps, Adélies and emperors are thought to be more vulnerable, at least in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Crested penguins are showing declines across most of their range, with very substantial and concerning declines in some macaroni populations. That penguin numbers are changing is not in doubt, but the reasons for these changes are less well understood. In order to protect these sentinels, a number of international groups have advocated the need to set aside parts of the ocean as protected areas. In this workshop, we want to begin the process that will lead to the designation of marine Important Bird Areas (using the BirdLife criteria and approaches) for penguins and the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity). Marine Protected Areas are recognised as an important management tool for conserving marine biodiversity, even allowing for the sustainable and rational use of marine living resources and enhancing fisheries management in some situations. MPAs have the potential to greatly enhance the survival and existence of marine species and systems, including for penguins. In this workshop we want to explore how the designation of MPAs may be undertaken through Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), both within areas of national jurisdiction and on the High Seas, including the development of some critical tools necessary to achieve this. Vital information needed for the protection of penguins (including networks of candidate IBAs/EBSAs), is increased understanding about their use of key habitats in space and time. Tracking data has been an effective tool for illustrating this in the past, and will be essential for developing new quantitative assessments in relation to current situations and future changes. However, tracking data needs combining with other information on the marine foodweb and biodiversity so these can be adequately represented in the overall MSP process. In this workshop we want to determine how we might integrate penguin tracking data from a variety of researchers and for a variety of penguin species. We wish to define analysis requirements to facilitate data integration so that we can begin to define IBAs and EBSAs which may then help us improve the future for penguins and other marine taxa.