Germany intends to present the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG EMM) the background document that provides the scientific basis for the evaluation of a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea planning area. The contents and structure of the whole document reflect its main objectives, i.e. to set out the general context of the establishment of MPAs and to provide the background information on the Weddell Sea MPA (WSMPA) planning area (Part A); to inform on the data retrieval process (Part B), and to describe the results of the scientific analyses and the MPA scenario development with the directly science-based aspects of the WSMPA proposal, i.e. the objectives and the boundaries and zones of the MPA (Part C).
Here, the authors intend to update WG EMM on the current state of Part C of the scientific background document. Part C informs on the data analysis and the MPA scenario development that were carried out within the framework of the WSMPA project. Chapter 1 contains an update of the data analysis that has been presented in our background document SC-CAMLR-XXXIII/BG/02, and had welcomed and endorsed as a foundation reference document for the Weddell Sea MPA planning by the Scientific Committee (SC-CAMLR-XXXIII, § 5.21). Chapter 2 provides a systematic overview of the newly conducted MPA scenario development. The proposed objectives (subchapter 2.1), borders (2.4) and zoning related aspects (based on subchapter 2.5) are intended to be incorporated in the WSMPA proposal.