Standard Presentation Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting 2023

A Social-Ecological Model to Identify Policy Responses to the Threat of Marine Invasive Species to Australia's Antarctic Regions (#38)

Oakes Holland 1 2 , Ilva Sporne 1 2 , Kate Helmstedt 1 2 , Jonathan Stark 3 4 , Justine Shaw 1 2 , Kerrie Wilson 1 2
  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD
  2. Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  3. Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, TAS, Australia
  4. Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, Kingston, TAS, Australia

There is growing recognition of the threat of marine invasive species (MIS) to the coastal ecosystems of Antarctica and the subantarctic islands. This is most likely to occur as a result of shipping to the area, with hull fouling being identified as the key pathway non-native species will take. To date, there are no known established non-native marine species in this region. However, to ensure that these environments remain pest-free there needs to be suitable policies in place to prevent the introduction of non-native species, to monitor for non-native species, and to manage non-native species if discovered in the Antarctic or subantarctic. Here, I used the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework to develop a social-ecological model of the system to identify a number of policy responses that respond to this threat. Then, using these responses as search terms, I examined the range of Australian policy instruments to determine if the threat of MIS is covered in the existing policy landscape, or if there were gaps for any of the policy responses identified earlier. I found that all policy responses were present, in at least a basic sense, in the current policy instruments, but that policy responses specific to MIS were lacking.