NERC Data Catalogue Service
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protected Area boundaries, 2025 update
This record comprises six datasets related to the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) Marine Protected Area (MPA) review undertaken in 2025. The SGSSI MPA is one of the world's largest MPAs, and in April 2025 the area of the MPA in which fishing is prohibited was greatly expanded following the second five-year MPA review in 2024. Details of the new measures can be found within the latest legislation (SGSSI Gazette No 2 dated 22 April 2025: https://laws.gov.gs/gazettes/ ), and the datasets here relate directly to the areas and boundaries referred to in these measures.
These datasets are:
-The boundary of the SGSSI MPA
-No Take Zones
-General Benthic Closed Areas
-Research Benthic Closed Areas
-Pelagic Closed Areas
-General Fisheries Zones
The datasets are available as shapefiles.
This work has been funded directly by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands with additional financial support from the UK Government Blue Belt programme.
Simple
- Date (Creation)
- 2026-01-16
- Date (Revision)
- 2026-01-16
- Date (Publication)
- 2026-01-16
- Date (released)
- 2026-01-16
- Edition
- 1.0
- Unique resource identifier
- https://doi.org/10.5285/aaa200d9-70b7-4078-9450-3706b01f052a
- Codespace
- doi
- Unique resource identifier
- GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02139
- Codespace
- https://data.bas.ac.uk/
- Other citation details
- Please cite this item as: Hogg, O., Gerrish, L., & Belchier, M. (2026). South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protected Area boundaries, 2025 update (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/aaa200d9-70b7-4078-9450-3706b01f052a
- Credit
- No credit.
- Status
- completed Completed
https://www.bas.ac.uk/team/business-teams/information-services/uk-polar-data-centre/
- Maintenance and update frequency
- asNeeded As needed
- Maintenance note
- completed Completed
- Theme
-
- Marine Protected Areas
- South Georgia
- conservation
- fishing
- protection
- Place
-
- Scotia Sea Southern Ocean
- South Georgia Island
- Atlantic Ocean
- South Sandwich Islands
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- no limitations to public access
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- no limitations
- Use constraints
- license License
- Other constraints
- Open Government Licence v3.0
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- This data is supplied under Open Government Licence v.3
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- None.
- Unique resource identifier
- url
- Codespace
- url
- Association Type
- crossReference Cross reference
- Unique resource identifier
- url
- Codespace
- url
- Association Type
- crossReference Cross reference
- Unique resource identifier
- url
- Codespace
- url
- Association Type
- dependency dependency
- Unique resource identifier
- doi
- Codespace
- doi
- Association Type
- crossReference Cross reference
- Unique resource identifier
- url
- Codespace
- url
- Association Type
- crossReference Cross reference
- Spatial representation type
- textTable Text, table
- Metadata language
- engEnglish
- Character set
- utf8 UTF8
- Topic category
-
- Boundaries
))
- Begin date
- 2025-04-22
- End date
- 2025-04-22
- Supplemental Information
- It is recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of any data, and that the author be contacted with any questions regarding appropriate use. If you find any errors or omissions, please report them to polardatacentre@bas.ac.uk.
Distributor
https://www.bas.ac.uk/team/business-teams/information-services/uk-polar-data-centre/
- Units of distribution
- bytes
- Transfer size
- 8703181
- OnLine resource
-
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- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Statement
-
Methodology:
The data was created using Esri ArcGIS Pro, following the parameters set out in the latest legislation (SGSSI Gazette No 2 dated 22 April 2025: https://laws.gov.gs/gazettes/).
Shapefiles were created in a custom equal area projection, which was used to calculate accurate areas stated in the legislation. This projection is an Albers Equal Area Conic projection with a central meridian of 34°W, standard parallels at 54°S and 60°S, and the latitude of origin at 57°S. The spheroid is WGS84. These calculations are recorded in the 'area_km2' attribute for each boundary feature.
Data collection:
Shapefiles were created using Esri ArcGIS Pro v3.5.
- File identifier
- aaa200d9-70b7-4078-9450-3706b01f052a XML
- Metadata language
- engEnglish
- Character set
- utf8 UTF8
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Hierarchy level name
- dataset
- Date stamp
- 2026-01-16
- Metadata standard name
- ISO 19115 Geographic Information - Metadata
- Metadata standard version
- ISO 19115:2003(E)
https://www.bas.ac.uk/team/business-teams/information-services/uk-polar-data-centre/
Overviews
Spatial extent
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