Abstract:
Remote, high-latitude oceans can prove challenging for the designation and
implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs), partly due to issues in monitoring
inaccessible localities and large spatial scales. A lack of protection combined
with damage from growing human activities has contributed to the degradation
of some of the Earth’s richest marine biodiversity and highlights the
urgent need to support improved marine conservation. High-resolution satellite
imagery (VHR; 0.3–0.6 m spatial resolution) provides a much-needed tool
for monitoring sentinel species in remote oceans, which would strengthen current
and future MPA research and monitoring programs across the globe. This
perspective specifies how recent advances in VHR studies have contributed to
knowledge regarding occurrence, habitat suitability, and abundance of mesopredators
in the Southern Ocean. We demonstrate how knowledge gained
through VHR offers a cost-effective and easily accessible method for collecting
previously unobtainable data to inform a representative network of Southern
Ocean MPAs, and how the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic
Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) could utilize this technology. As VHR and
automated detection algorithms continue to improve, we showcase a promising
opportunity to use these methods to complement current research and monitoring
efforts, thus strengthening MPA efforts in the Southern Ocean and beyond.
