Inter-Parties' Action Plan to Manage the Non-Native Flies in King George Island, South Shetland Islands

Abstract

Non-native flies have colonised the sewage treatment plants of several stations on King George Island, South Shetland Islands. As the first step of a co-ordinated international response to manage the flies, most of the overwintering stations on King George Island checked their station buildings, facilities, and environments around their stations as the response to the survey entitled 'A short questionnaire on Non-native Flies at Antarctic Stations'. Based on the findings of the survey, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Chile, and the United Kingdom recommend that the CEP: (1) continues to encourage Parties with stations on King George Island to check their facilities for non-native flies and to undertake both continuous and periodic monitoring to indicate, if there are any non-native flies inhabiting the environment; (2) encourages the Parties to jointly develop co-ordinated standardized monitoring and eradication programmes to effectively control the spread of the flies, and join the collaborative research project; and (3) asks COMNAP to play a central role in sharing information and best practices between Parties and other stakeholders.