Germany intends to present the Scientific Committee the background document that provides the scientific basis for the evaluation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Weddell Sea. Please note, that the current state of the background document presents a comprehensive yet incomplete first version concerning chapters that have to be (further) developed or revised. The contents and structure of the document reflect also its main objectives, i.e. (i) to set out the general background and context of the establishment of MPAs, (ii) to describe the boundaries of the Weddell Sea MPA Planning Area, (iii) to inform on the data retrieval process, (iv) to provide - for the first time- a comprehensive, yet succinct, general description of the Weddell Sea ecosystem to reflect the state of the science, and additionally to present the results of the various preliminary scientific analyses that were carried out so far within the framework of the MPA Weddell Sea project, and finally (v) to describe future work beyond the development of the scientific basis for the evaluation of a Weddell Sea MPA.