Karen Alexander

With Antarctica facing many urgent environmental challenges, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that members of the public are supported to understand, care about and protect the southern polar region. Research to date has taken a variety of approaches to Antarctic public engagement, framing it as a challenge for science communication, the media, education and/or the arts. In this paper, we take a social approach by examining public engagement with Antarctica’s communities, applying theories of place attachment, social capital and structuration. Using the Antarctic gateway city of Hobart as a case example, we ask what Antarctic communities are present in the city, how they are perceived by residents and what factors influence local public engagement with Antarctica. Through in-depth interviews, we identify three separate but overlapping Antarctic communities present in Hobart: the expeditioner community, the gateway community and the diplomatic community. We find that four key factors influence participation in these communities: not only communication, but also built environment and infrastructure, availability of shared activities and the existence of an ‘experience hierarchy’ that prioritizes the perspectives of people who have travelled to Antarctica in person. These results suggest that if we want to move society towards engaging to protect Antarctica, the current engagement focus on science communication may not be sufficient; rather, we should prioritize community-building strategies to strengthen ties between Antarctic communities and the broader public.

Cetaceans face a multitude of well-recognised anthropogenic threats, many of which can be attributed to the activities of marine vessels that are increasing in number throughout the world’s oceans. This study applies a systematic map methodology to better understand the current state of knowledge on vessel impacts to cetaceans, and to identify data gaps relating to specific geographies, vessel types and species. Literature searches were undertaken in January 2023 using three databases (Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest), yielding 28,452 results. After duplicate removal and title, abstract and full-text screening, 568 documents were included in this review, resulting in 661 records of empirical evidence being extracted for further analysis. These records highlighted a focus on certain species (bottlenose dolphins (n = 133) and humpback whales (n = 89)) and vessel types (e.g., eco-tourism boats (n = 145)), and the majority of records were from North American waters (n = 274). There was also limited evidence demonstrating impacts of vessels for entire groups of species including porpoises (n = 21) and beaked whales (n = 22). Given the global distribution of marine mammals and vessels, there were few published records available for African waters and international waters. However, for 41.4% of the records it was not possible to classify the type(s) of vessels represented. Therefore, greater clarity and recognition of the heterogeneity of vessels and their associated impacts would both help improve our understanding of potential knowledge gaps and, importantly, help refine our ability to holistically evaluate and assess the risk(s) maritime traffic poses to cetaceans.

The Anthropocene presents unique challenges for humanity’s relationship with remote environments. Transboundary environmental problems, such as climate change or plastics pollution, affect places that are beyond most people’s direct experience. Mobilising public support on these issues requires people to care about their impact on places they may never visit. While place attachment theory can help us to understand someone’s concern for a particular place, research usually focuses on the perspectives of people who have direct physical experience of that place. Broadening place scholarship to include attachment formed without immediate experience gives insight into the bonds between people and remote environments. To investigate this idea of “remote” attachment, we focus on a remote and endangered place, Antarctica, in relation to the southerly port city of Hobart, Australia. We conducted in‐depth interviews (n = 37) with residents—15 of whom had visited Antarctica—to explore and compare their Antarctic place attachment. We found evidence of remote attachment constrained by several factors including local social dynamics that positioned non‐visitors as Antarctic outsiders. We conclude that future engagement strategies should aim to bridge the social divide between community members who have and have not visited such places. Our findings inform place attachment scholarship in a range of settings, including remote national parks, the deep sea, and outer space.

In the coming decades, Antarctica will face a range of challenges linked to transnational issues such as climate change, plastics pollution and geopolitical tension. Such challenges make it increasingly important for the Antarctic sector to ensure that there is broad public support for the ongoing political and environmental stewardship of the southern polar region. Initiatives such as the 2032–2033 International Polar Year offer a unique opportunity to enhance public knowledge of and investment in Antarctic research, but little is currently known about how well-suited the Antarctic sector is to the work of public engagement. In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory survey (n = 76) conducted in 2022–2023 to examine the Antarctic sector’s capacity to engage with the public. We find that, while public engagement work is certainly happening in the Antarctic sector, it is often ad hoc and under-resourced, and the skillset associated with engagement work is commonly undervalued. In order to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the next International Polar Year, we recommend that the organizations within the Antarctic sector collaborate on a joint public engagement strategy.

Annals of Global Health is a peer-reviewed, fully open access, online journal dedicated to publishing high quality articles dedicated to all aspects of global health. The journal's mission is to advance global health, promote research, and foster the prevention and treatment of disease worldwide. Its goals are to improve the health and well-being of all people, advance health equity, and promote wise stewardship of the earth's environment. The latest journal impact factor is 2.90. Annals of Global Health is supported by the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. It was founded in 1934 by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine. It is a partner journal of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. From time to time, Annals of Global Health publishes Special Collections, a series of articles organized around a common theme in global health. Recent Special Collections have included "Local evidence and strategies in addressing NCDs Non-Communicable Diseases in Tanzania", "Universal Health Coverage through Integrated Care", and "The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health". Global health workers interested in developing a Special Collection are strongly encouraged to contact the Managing Editor in advance to discuss the project.

Global marine environments are increasingly exposed to the stressors of climate change and human activities. International conservation agreements recommend establishing systems of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in each of the world’s oceans to protect marine biodiversity and ensure the sustainability of socio-ecological systems. In Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is incrementally planning and implementing regional MPAs, with the aim to establish a large-scale, representative circumpolar system for the Convention Area. The Domain 9 planning region, covering the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas in West Antarctica, remains unplanned for and unprotected. Here, we use a Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) approach and planning scenarios to identify a set of spatial conservation priorities for Domain 9 that meet CCAMLR MPA objectives and are robust to various planning considerations of Southern Ocean stakeholders. We show where differences in targets and data inputs influence priority area selection and their spatial relationship with areas of fisheries interest. Our results provide priority areas for a Domain 9 MPA to contribute to the ongoing development of the circumpolar Southern Ocean MPA system, with methods that are broadly applicable for MPA planning in other Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

Establishing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in international waters is critical for the conservation of marine biodiversity. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is a global leader in high seas conservation, having established two international MPAs in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, as part of a commitment to establish a representative system of MPAs for the CAMLR Convention Area. However, proposals for new MPAs have faced ongoing challenges in the planning process, and since 2016 the Commission has been unable to agree and implement further MPAs, which has stalled the development of the circumpolar representative system. The key aim of this study was to identify how features of the planning process contribute to outcomes, problems and solutions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 scientists, policymakers, and expert observers from fisheries and environmental non-government organisations involved in CCAMLR MPA planning, to explore their perceptions (experiences, opinions, impressions) of the planning process. Our results identify four key features that are influential across multiple areas of the CCAMLR MPA planning and decision-making process: i) a lack of common understanding; ii) the influence of historical relationships and legacy in subsequent planning processes; iii) inconsistencies between expectations of and requirements for MPA planning; and iv) the degree to which CCAMLR principles and practices, norms, and values are shared. We describe how these four features may help or hinder the effectiveness of the current planning process. We then make suggestions regarding how the planning process could be adapted to capitalise on these features.

Sustainability and sustainable development are the buzzwords of our era. Nowhere is this clearer than in primary production/extraction industries, such as aquaculture and fisheries. Yet in the seafood sector (as with many others), the term continues to be used most commonly in relation to the environmental dimension; much less is known about social and economic sustainability. In this review, we explore what is known about social sustainability in the seafood sector. We identify seven key thematic areas: livelihoods and human development; human rights; social, psychological, and cultural needs; equitable access to resource and benefit sharing; a voice in public issues; flow-on benefits for local and regional economies and improved infrastructure and access. We reveal that while there has been a clear focus on developing social sustainability indicators, this has largely missed more relational and subjective aspects of social sustainability. We also show that some thematic areas of social sustainability also remain underdeveloped. Overall, we argue that it is imperative that we address the knowledge gaps and incorporate what we already know about social sustainability into existing industry and governance processes. If we do not, not only risk not achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, but we also risk moving closer towards environmental and societal collapse.