Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many kilometres of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area are legally designated as fully no-take areas.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, established to deliver defined conservation outcomes, covers 1.074 million km2. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 166,207 km2 of the maritime zone.
There are a number of legal provisions in place for the effective management and conservation of the South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA. There are approximately 20,500 km2 of full no-take zones; 18,000 km2 of additional pelagic no-take zones; prohibitions of long-line fishing across 989,000 km2; and a complete ban on commercial bottom trawling.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area is permanently closed to krill fishing.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, which covers 86% of the maritime zone, permits sustainable, highly precautionary fishing activities to take place. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 14% of the maritime zone.
There are permanent pelagic no-take zone around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, from the coast out to 12 nautical miles. Through the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, krill fishing is restricted around South Sandwich Islands to 15% of the scientifically determined total allowable catch for the region, deemed highly precautionary. In addition to these international measures domestic regulations also prohibit fishing during the breeding period of the krill-eating penguins, seals and other natural predators and natural exclusion by sea ice in winter further restricts human activity.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many kilometres of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands marine protected area is permanently closed to krill fishing.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands sustainable use MPA, established to deliver defined conservation outcomes, covers 1.074 million km2. No commercial fishing licences are granted across the remaining 166,207 km2 of the maritime zone.
The permanent pelagic no-take zone extends 12 nautical miles around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands covering 38,500 km2. In addition to the highly precautionary international regulations through the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, there are seasonal closures during the breeding period of the krill-eating penguins, seals and other natural predators (1 November to 31 March) across the entire 1.074 million km2 MPA and natural exclusion by sea ice in winter further restricts human activity.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether any commercial fishing for krill has taken place within the South Sandwich Islands Exclusive Economic Zone in the last 25 years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands sustainable - use Marine Protected Area (MPA) Permits, highly precautionary fishing activity. No commercial fishing for Antarctic krill has been undertaken in the last 25 years.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of biodiversity in the South Sandwich Islands.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The South Sandwich Islands are remote and as a consequence data-poor in comparison to other Subantarctic regions. There is also a very real threat to the ecology of the South Sandwich Islands from volcanism, with recent eruptions from the volcanoes on Zavodovski, Saunders and Bristol.
Recent scientific work indicates that unlike penguin colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula, the penguin colonies on the South Sandwich Islands are stable. To further enhance our understanding of the South Sandwich Islands, the UK's Blue Belt initiative has funded a scientific expedition to visit the South Sandwich Islands in late January 2019, allowing information to be collected on a variety of topics, including on krill and on the benthic communities that inhabit the seabed. UK scientists are also leading work within international scientific research programmes to improve our understanding of this and the wider Southern Ocean region.
Asked by: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands' total annual revenues came from commercial fishing operations licensed to operate within the (a) South Georgia and (b) South Sandwich Islands Exclusive Economic Zone in the last three years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The financial accounts of Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands are freely available on their website.
For 2016, the latest year for which accounts have been published, the total annual revenue from the sale of commercial fishing activities in South Georgia was 73% of the (£5,586k) and for South Sandwich Islands 1.8% (£134K). These figures do not include associated economic activity such as harbour fees and non-revenue outcomes such as scientific research.