CCAMLR

The General Framework for the Establishment of CCAMLR Marine Protected Areas in Conservation Measure 91-04 provides the necessary guidance to the Commission for formulating a conservation measure for a CCAMLR Marine Protected Area and indicates a number of elements where advice may be given by the Scientific Committee.  We propose that a method is needed for consolidating and maintaining that advice in a readily accessible document, which can then form the basis for review, refinement and management of the MPAs. This document will also need a name that is easily referred to in the common language of the Commission.  We propose that an MPA Report be developed, following the designation of an MPA, to serve this purpose in the same way that Fishery Reports have been developed by the Scientific Committee to service the work of the Commission in reviewing and revising conservation measures governing fisheries in the Convention Area.  The justification is outlined in the paper.  We propose that the structure for an MPA report be consistent with the style of a Fishery Report, and include the following sections: (1) description of the region, (2) objectives to be achieved in the MPA(s), (3) historical activities, (4) assessments of the MPA and the effects of activities, (5) limits, and (6) research and monitoring plan. Such a report will mean that the Scientific Committee will not need to wait until a mandated review period arises before it assembles the relevant materials.  As a result, the process of maintaining the MPA Report will help define the role of the Scientific Committee in providing timely advice to the Commission on MPAs.

A proposal for a SCOR “Working Group to identify Ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables for measuring change in the biological properties of marine ecosystems” was developed by members of the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Science Steering Committee in conjuction with discussions amongst members of the Science Steering Committee of the IMBER program, Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics (ICED) as part of the development of the ICED Southern Ocean Sentinel.  The aim of the Working Group is to develop a set of essential variables for monitoring that would contribute to assessments of whole-of-ecosystem status and change.  The intention of the SCOR Working Group is to provide a mechanism for linking a number of groups working on this issue, leading to a symposium in 2016.  The proposal is detailed in this paper.  It is recommended that the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR become involved in this work, particularly through the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management and the experts involved in the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program.  The outcomes of this working group will be important for CCAMLR in measuring the status and trends of Southern Ocean ecosystems, particularly in support of the development of management procedures for fisheries and in the conservation of marine biodiversity.

Conservation Measure 91-04 establishes the requirement for research and monitoring plans to support marine protected areas (MPAs).  Although CM 91-04 provides general guidance that such research and monitoring plans shall, to the extent necessary and inter alia, specify “(a) scientific research pursuant to the specific objectives of the MPA; (b) other research consistent with the specific objectives of the MPA; and/or (c) monitoring of the degree to which the specific objectives of the MPA are being met,” we are unclear about what a research and monitoring plan should actually contain and how it should be structured.  Here we present a draft plan to support an MPA in the Ross Sea Region (RSR) and seek comments from the WG-EMM both on the contents and structure of our draft.  Indeed, this draft largely represents a mechanism for generating discussion that we hope will be useful to all Members developing such plans.  Although our draft is developed from the perspective of supporting an MPA like that presented in SC-CAMLR-XXX/9 (the U.S. scenario presented last year), we acknowledge that other Members have alternative views about the boundaries and objectives presented in SC-CAMLR-XXX/9.  We expect that establishment of an MPA in the RSR will require agreement on alternative boundaries and objectives, and, ultimately, the “final” research and monitoring plan will need to support this agreement.  We further acknowledge that other Members are also considering how to develop research and monitoring plans, and, much as the boundaries and objectives of any MPA will ultimately reflect shared views, we hope that elements of what we present here can, where appropriate, be merged with elements developed by others to provide an improved plan that both usefully supports an MPA in the RSR and indicates a way forward for plans to support other MPAs in the Convention Area.

Fishing for krill Euphasia superba Dana has been conducting using midwater trawls of different constructions including beam-trawl for several last decades.

Not all krill in harvesting zone of midwater trawl got to catch during trawling. Depending on stock structure, size and physiological state of krill individuals some part of them could pass through cover of net bag and escape of catch. In contact with threads of the net bag some of them may receive possibly lethal mechanical damage.

Proposed method is applicable for rating of krill traumatic damage, received by it during trawling from cover of net bag, only for fishing with hauling of full net for catch extraction. The analogous rating for fishing with fishpump needs developing of special methods of source material obtaining to set experiments. But, taking into account the fact that trawl constructions used for these variants of fishing process are analogous or insignificantly different from the first, obtained results could be interpolated for them too.

Picking of krill individuals, passed through meshes of net bag cover of fishing gear was carried out with specially made net bags – catchers (traps), set onto the cover of net bag of a studies trawl. While hauling, caught in these special bags krill is took out and then put into a special baths with sea water for conducting of aquarium studies to determine its survival.

We present a feedback strategy, founded on CEMP data, to adjust the catch limit and the spatial distribution of fishing activity for Antarctic krill in Statistical Area 48. The CEMP currently provides decades-long baseline time series and useful contrasts across areas and species that are both relevant to making inference about the potential for competition between krill-dependent predators and the fishery and are sensitive to changes in the marine ecosystem (e.g. series that indicate predator abundance and condition). A feedback management approach can use ‘hockey-stick’ models that define decision rules for adjustments to the fishery and can be parameterized from empirical observations collected at CEMP sites (e.g. relationships between animal condition and subsequent survival). If a feedback strategy for the krill fishery includes comparison of predator performance in no-fishing areas, these decision rules can help the Commission respond to changes that are attributable to the impacts of fishing alone. If fishing occurs everywhere, these decision rules can facilitate responses to cumulative changes in the ecosystem.

One indicator that has been proposed for use in a feedback management system for the krill fishery is an estimate of predator productivity attributable to consumption of harvested species. We illustrate some of the data and methods that could be used for measuring and evaluating this indicator and for designing a monitoring program for a feedback management system.

We analysed the available data from vessel and scientific observer logbooks from the exploratory fishery for Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) and Patagonian toothfish (D. eleginoides) in CCAMLR subarea 48.6 (South East Atlantic). This report summarises the catch, effort, timing, depth, location, size structure and maturity of Dissostichus spp.  Information on the composition of  bycatch species caught in the fishery over the period 2003-4 to 2011-12 are also presented. For the Antarctic toothfish, accumulated catch across years yielded 1,353 tons with the majority of the catch coming from SSRUs 48.6G and 48.6E. For the Patagonian toothfish the accumulated catch was 349 tons and almost all was reported exclusively in the SSRUs 48.6A and 48.6G. Most of the catches were reported by vessels from Japan (58%) and Rep. of Korea (31%) and to a lesser extent, from South Africa (7%) and Norway (4%).

Unstandardized raw catch and effort data suggested that the median catch per unit of effort in Antarctic toothfish has generally increased over the course of the fishery whilst it has decreased over time for Patagonian toothfish. In both species average length of catches is larger in females. Antarctic toothfish is caught at deeper waters and have a larger mean length than Patagonian toothfish. There is not evidence of truncation in the overall length frequency distribution of both species, although some evidence of reduction in the mean fish length has been observed in the last three fishing seasons. In both sexes, high frequencies of maturity stages 2 and 3 were observed in Antarctic toothfish whereas for Patagonian toothfish immature (stage 1) fish were  most frequently observed. The bycatch for both toothfish species is composed of few species. In term of biomass, the most important bycatch species are grenadiers and blue antimora. A total of 3,828 individuals of toothfish have been tagged in this area but only 19 have been recaptured. We concluded that from the data examined from the fishery to date there is not evidence for substantial changes in the population structure of both species in this subarea.