The feedback management strategy in development will require a strengthen CEMP (or similar) network for its implementation (para. 2.64 & 2.65, EMM Report 2013).
For this reason, several countries had being asked i) contribute to the CEMP program with their existing monitoring programs, even if not considered ‘official’ CMEP sites, ii) start new CEMP (or analogous) sites in new areas that complement the existing ones.
Last year, Argentina proposed the incorporation of Cierva Cove as a Reference area for comparing a relative un-fished area with other CEMP sites subjected to more intensive fishing in its surroundings (Santos et al. 2013). However, there were opposite views regarding this proposal, mainly due to the recent fishing activity in the area and the absence of krill abundance estimates to assess the potential impact of this removal on the local krill supply (para. 2.98, EMM Report 2013).
This paper provides a graphical analysis of potential reference areas for ecosystem monitoring.