The Argentine Sea is home to around 26 endangered species of great importance, some of them endemic, such as the Franciscan dolphin and the sandstripe. But currently the marine area that is protected is very small. As a first step in improving the management and conservation of this ecosystem, a group of more than 30 specialists proposed to stop seeing it as a single gigantic and homogeneous area, to group it into 11 bioregions.
The latter are regions that share specific physical and biological characteristics in common. A map was created to identify them according to the species that inhabit them, as well as their vulnerabilities to climate change.
Since 2014, with the approval of Law No. 27,037, which created the National System of Marine Protected Areas (SNAMP), that country has a good coastal network of protected areas: today it has three large ocean parks. The problem is that all three are found in the southern part and only cover breeding areas of key species and charismatic species.
“We protect where it reproduces, but what happens in areas where species find food, ocean supermarkets? Not only coastal areas are key to sustaining today's populations,” said Valeria Falaballa, biologist and director of the Coastal Marine Conservation Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Argentina.
According to Falaballa, with Law 27,037, a great advance was achieved in terms of conservation, but it is necessary to deconcentrate efforts in the southern area, in order to grow the coastal network of protected areas along the Argentine coast. For this reason, making a map that would make visible the heterogeneity of the sea, and to group the areas that have a specific biological and physical structure in common, was a major first step in achieving this.
“The sea was studied as a unit. It is a gigantic extension, it is very clear that no authority can efficiently manage such a large area, with the diversity of things that are contained in that gigantic area, and the multiplicity of factors that could be intervening in the modification of that environment, either through the impact on particular species or influencing the operating processes of the systems. Then subdivided into sectors that clearly have common issues and characteristics that differentiate them from the rest, it allows for a finer analysis and distinguishes which places are more or less a priority,” added Pablo Yorio, doctor in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and member of the WCS Argentina.
This is how the WCS and the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea began to develop the bioregion model. Since 2019, they began to invite specialists from the academy, organized civil society and the government to participate. For the next three years, they organized both virtual and in-person workshops. They analyzed the previous bioregional models that had already been developed and studied ways to integrate them to make a proposal that was as complete and comprehensive as possible.
The work culminated in the development of a map in which 11 bioregions of the Argentine Sea are identified. And not only does it describe the special characteristics and dynamics of each one, but it also indicates which are the threatened species that inhabit them and their vulnerabilities to climate change.
Map of the 11 bioregions of the Argentine Sea designed by specialists through a project coordinated by the WCS and the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea
For example, the map confirmed that the bioregions of the Rio de la Plata, the Buenos Aires Patagonian Coast and the Middle Platform, located to the north, are areas where endangered endemic species of rays and sharks are concentrated, such as the dog, the catfish or the escalandrum, which is in a critical state of threat and for which it is essential to advance fisheries management, according to Falaballa.
These bioregions also have the presence of the seahorse and the Franciscan dolphin, an endemic species.
“For some species, the Argentine Sea plays a key role, because they are endemic. So the loss of that species in this region implies the loss of the species globally, and that is particularly the case with sharks and rays,” Falaballa said.
Precisely, the project made it possible to identify the places that are key to maintaining the trophic health and the ecological structure of the sea, that is, the so-called 'productive fronts', which are the equivalent of 'marine supermarkets', because of their oceanographic conditions they generate nutrients for species.
The map also made it easier to define conservation gaps: it was detected that representation in marine protected areas is low, since only four of the 11 bioregions have more than 10% of their protected surface.
Most are below 6%, and some are even less than 3%. In fact, none of the productive fronts found in the Argentine Sea are currently under protection.
The scalandrún is one of the shark species endemic to the Argentine Sea that is in a critical state of threat. Photo: WCS Argentina
Conservation gaps
With all these findings, the team that participated in the bioregions report prepared a report on conservation gaps, which, like the bioregions report, has already been completed and submitted to the authorities of that country, with the objective of making progress in terms of protection.
“We are trying to understand where and with what kind of tools or strategies it is appropriate to protect species, because it's not simple. Some are migratory, so a protected marine area alone cannot necessarily protect them. That will be if it is identified that there is a spawning or breeding area. So today you need to have good information. Of course, proper fisheries management is key and areas are beginning to be defined, there is beginning to be knowledge that defines some measures, such as prohibitions, but it is insufficient, so we must work on conservation urgently, understand what the key strategies are and create protected natural areas,” said Falaballa.
The team that participated in the preparation of the bioregion map expects that the data will be used by decision makers to carry out strategic conservation plans.
For now, they are looking at an initiative that is being promoted to create benthic marine protected areas, in areas of extension of the continental shelf, which would put barriers to international unregulated distance fisheries. Although an electoral process is currently going through in Argentina, the specialists hope to “be able to celebrate at the end of the year”.
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