Antarctica – the continent and the Southern Ocean which surrounds it is - one of the few inspirational regions left on Earth. It is described as the coldest, windiest and driest place on earth, a place of extremes. It drew to it the famous explorers of the past, such as, Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton and a host of intrepid voyagers who have left their names imprinted on the shores of the continent and the islands that surround it.

Every visitor to Antarctica falls under the spell of the continent at the bottom of the world. In Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, the rules by which people normally live break down. This is an area of everlasting ice, days lasting six months, large populations of few wildlife species, and no indigenous people, This is a place of dazzling beauty: ice reflects rainbow shards of light, snow petrels are black beaks and eyes against the snow. There are no trees on Antarctica but more than 100 million birds nest and breed there. About 75% of the world's freshwater is stored as ice, and 90% of that ice is in Antarctica. Frozen in time and ice, Antarctica holds secrets of the earth's past – and clues to its future.

The whole world is affected by what happens in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The world's climate is driven by what happens at the poles. Even short and small temperature changes in the south are connected to fast changes in the north by the changing Atlantic currents. The polar regions are 'heat sinks' that influence the whole world's climate and they are warming faster than other areas of the world. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays a unique role in the earth's climate system. Each of the world's major ocean basins is enclosed by land except at its southern boundary, and the Circumpolar Current functions as a pipe connecting these basins – permitting a truly global ocean circulation pattern.

It has been only 100 years since humans first occupied the continent of Antarctica (1899), and a mere 185 years since seafarers first saw the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula (1819). Very quickly however the abundant marine resources of the region attracted sealers and whalers and many species were pushed to the brink of extinction. Since the middle of the 20th century many of these previously hunted species have since recovered as a result of conservation measures. In the latter part of the 20th century a new wave of hunters arrived – seeking fish and krill, and human activity across the globe has forced temperatures in Antarctica to increase by nearly 3 degrees Celsius. Whether the biodiversity of the Antarctic continent and Southern Ocean survives this second wave of exploitation and impact of climate change will be determined in the next few decades.

It was the recognition of the importance of the region for science and the region's intrinsic value that led to the development of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) and the further development of the Conventions, Agreements and Protocols, including the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

The current problems facing Antarctica are immense, and include:

• pirate fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) which continues to plunder valuable fish stock and kill tens of thousands of seabirds each year,
• climate change which is believed to be further compromising the delicate balance of the Southern Oceans, widespread melting of Antarctic glaciers is already being observed,
• new proposals for massive extraction of krill, primarily to feed fish farms in Southern America and Europe, which threaten the very foundations of the regions' ecosystem,
• invasive species (rats and mice in particular) which prey on the eggs and chicks of seabirds and are likely to result in the extinction of a number of albatross species unless they are soon controlled.

The past history of managed exploitation of commercial fish species in the region has not been good. The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has been in existence for 25 years. In the early days CCAMLR members found it difficult to stop the over exploitation of Antarctic krill and Antarctic rockcod a commercially targeted species. Little was known then of the life cycle of the krill, and overfishing brought the rockcod to the brink of commercial extinction. Science 'caught up' and CCAMLR members agreed useful conservation measures - however, we must learn the lessons from the past and not repeat the mistakes made back then.

Today, progress has been made towards sustainably managing all living resources in the region. The science is excellent, the decision making is better, the compliance and reporting is vastly improved but there are still issues and areas that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, these include:

• identifying, agreeing and declaring a representative system of marine protected areas;
• stopping illegal fishing;
• using product labelling which allows the importers and consumers to recognise the products from well-managed fisheries;
• reducing seabird mortality from longlines and trawls, and from invasive species which kill young birds or destroy the bird nesting habitats;
• reducing emissions which contribute to global climate change and introducing adaptation measures in the future management of
  Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.