What is SKEG and who is involved?
SKEG provides a forum to guide research directions, promote collaboration, improve understanding of krill biology and ecology, and thus assist in providing critical scientific information relevant to krill fishery management. Furthermore, since ship time for krill fieldwork is becoming more scarce, the group provides a forum for information exchange on upcoming cruises and funding opportunities, as well as laboratory facilities for experimental krill work, and serves as a platform for the development of future international collaborative research proposals and programmes.
SKEG interacts with, and provides essential input to existing SCAR groups, such as Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean (ICED).
How does SKEG do all this?
Collaboration in the pursuit of improving our understanding of krill biology and ecology is at the heart of SKEG and there are multiple formats through which it can occur:
Our Backstory
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was established by international convention in 1982 with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life. The Commission was created in response to increasing commercial interest in Antarctic krill resources, but there is no longer a krill working group within CCAMLR. The CCAMLR Scientific Committee has emphasised the need for a mechanism to better incorporate the relevant science being done on krill into CCAMLR, and thus the SCAR Krill Expert Group (SKEG, formerly the SCAR Krill Action Group) aims to become the prime conduit between CCAMLR and the wider krill science community.
SKEG is an expert group within SCAR, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
SCAR is a thematic organisation of the International Science Council (ISC), and was created in 1958. SCAR is charged with initiating, developing and coordinating high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region (including the Southern Ocean), and on the role of the Antarctic region in the Earth system. SCAR provides objective and independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and other organizations such as the UNFCCC and IPCC on issues of science and conservation affecting the management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and on the role of the Antarctic region in the Earth system.
Learn more about SCAR, and about our science and policy advice activities.
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