Priority areas for marine protection in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas, Antarctica

Global marine environments are increasingly exposed to the stressors of climate change and human activities. International conservation agreements recommend establishing systems of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in each of the world’s oceans to protect marine biodiversity and ensure the sustainability of socio-ecological systems. In Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is incrementally planning and implementing regional MPAs, with the aim to establish a large-scale, representative circumpolar system for the Convention Area. The Domain 9 planning region, covering the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas in West Antarctica, remains unplanned for and unprotected. Here, we use a Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) approach and planning scenarios to identify a set of spatial conservation priorities for Domain 9 that meet CCAMLR MPA objectives and are robust to various planning considerations of Southern Ocean stakeholders. We show where differences in targets and data inputs influence priority area selection and their spatial relationship with areas of fisheries interest. Our results provide priority areas for a Domain 9 MPA to contribute to the ongoing development of the circumpolar Southern Ocean MPA system, with methods that are broadly applicable for MPA planning in other Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.