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.