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); 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 B of the scientific background document. Part B informs on the data retrieval process within the WSMPA project. Chapter 1 describes the environmental data sets that were acquired for the evaluation of MPAs in the Weddell Sea planning area. Chapter 2 provides a systematic overview of the current data situation regarding ecological data sets. Most data sets are already presented in our background document SC-CAMLR-XXXIII/BG/02, which the Scientific Committee had welcomed and endorsed as a foundation reference document for the Weddell Sea MPA planning (SC-CAMLR-XXXIII, § 5.21).