CCAMLR

Cape Shirreff is designated as Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) No. 149 through the Antarctic Treaty. The Management Plan for Cape Shirreff has been revised as part of the five-yearly review process required by the Madrid Protocol. The management plan has been updated with recent data and scientific publications and on the basis of detailed Inspection Checklists completed by United States and Chilean personnel who have recently been working within the Area. Management provisions have been updated to comply with current policy accepted within the Antarctic Treaty System. Air access guidance clarified through the designation of a Helicopter Access Zone (route of aircraft access) and a Restricted Zone (zone where all aircraft are prohibited). The boundary of the Protected Area has not been changed. Maps accompanying the Management Plan have been revised to reflect updates to air access guidance and other minor revisions to the Management Plan. Protection afforded to the Cape Shirreff CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) site under Conservation Measure 91-02 has been rescinded and protection now continues under the management plan of ASPA No. 149 (SC-CAMLR-XXVIII, Annex 4, paragraph 5.29). The revised management plan for Cape Shirreff is presented to WG-EMM for consideration for endorsement and acceptance by CCAMLR and the ATCM.

Large concentrations of early (Calyptopes I to Furcilia III) larvae are consistently detected at the Weddell Scotia Confluence due to the presence of upwelling of larvae completing their developmental ascent. A number of quantitative variables reflect this phenomenon. As the position of the Confluence is fixed by the bottom topography interannual variability is geographicaly limited making possible to establish a monitoring programme aimed to evaluate the status of adult populations and recruitment strength. Monitoring would be based on net sampling and/or multibeam acoustics. This programme would be relatively easy to implement using research cruises and vessels of opportunity and will aid in discriminating between different factors affecting the CEMP parameters. Variables of interest are: density, size of larvae, median stage and the proportion of different stages in the catch.

In this study the review of Russian investigations of krill escapement through the trawl netting fulfilled by means of instrumental (acoustic observations, underwater observations, method of fine-meshed chafers) and analytical methods are presented. The main factors affected on krill escapement though trawl netting and escape mortality are shown. The author discusses the results of these studies in two aspects: the problems and approaches to elaboration of the efficient methodology for the escape mortality assessment per one fishing operation and development of approaches to the total «escape mortality» assessment in krill fishery. It is suggested to use the models of probability-statistical theory of fishing systems developed in AtlantNIRO, for solving the following tasks: quantitative understanding of the «escape mortality» process; obtaining standardized indices of krill mortality during one fishing operation; assessment of krill fishing mortality intensity and fishing gross removal intensity by the vessel group.

The task to estimate the escape mortality of krill during the fishing operation assigned by Scientific Committee requires assessment of the total krill passed through the rope and netting parts of trawl and krill amount appeared unviable in the process of escapement. The recommendations presented are the first attempt to develop the method of instrumental assessment of the «escape mortality». Estimation of the total amount of krill escaped from the rope and netting parts of the trawl is proposed to carry out on the basis of the complex application of fine-meshed chafers and acoustic method. The method of fine-meshed chafers allows obtaining the quantitative assessment of krill killed during escapement from the trawl. However, the practical implementation of fine-meshed chafers requires special investigation on methodical and technological issues of estimating krill escape mortality. The problems and approaches to elaboration of the efficient method for «escape mortality» study by standardizing data collection and processing, including a standard chafer design, are discussed.

Standardization of fishing effort on the basis of the generalized linear models with mixed effect (GLMM) allows to the authors to analyze the specific character of the spatial distribution of fishery at the scale of Area 48, Subareas 48.1-48.3, SSMUs and years using CAMLR statistical database. The interannual variability of the standardized CPUE related to the fishery performance was analyzed. It was revealed that dynamics of the most important fishery index - standardized abundance index CPUE in Subareas 48.1-48.3 and SSMUs did not correspond to the dynamics of krill density and biomass distribution, obtained from CCAMLR 2000 Survey and available data of the national acoustic surveys. The performance of the fishery and attractiveness of any SSMU for fleet operation will determined by the fishable part of krill biomass rather than the total krill biomass in the area. The high variability and different trends of CPUE distribution by Subareas and SSMUs, differences between spatial-temporal distributions of CPUE and krill biomass from acoustic surveys , huge confidential intervals of annual CPUE estimates evidence that inter-annual variability of standardized abundance index of krill obtained from CAMLR statistical database cannot be used for quantitative understanding of the process of the actual krill distribution in Area 48. The long-term fishery management in Area 48 will be required new international acoustic surveys and full-scale usage of available data from the national acoustic surveys.

This paper describes distribution and size-age composition of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in commercial catches by Russian trawler 'Maxim Starostin' in the South Orkney region (Subarea 48.2). The fishery operations were conducted between January and March in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons. All age cohorts of krill passed spawning during the season 2008/2009, while in anomalous cold 2009/2010 season significant proportion of krill of cohort 2+ skipped spawning. Individuals of Antarctic krill in age 1+ were absent in catches in both 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons. Possible reasons of this phenomenon are discussed.

The WG-FSA Subgroup on VMEs was tasked with providing a draft template of a Report on Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems to WG-EMM and WG-FSA in 2010. This paper provides a draft template, including the workplan and discussion. It has been compiled by the Subgroup for consideration at WG-EMM in 2010. The structure aims to follow the logic of the fishery reports already provided by WG-FSA: (i) Status of the fisheries, (ii) Knowledge on the fish stocks, (iii) Methods, (iv) Assessments of status and future catch limits, (v) Other Issues, and (vi) Advice. These topics have been tailored to suit the issue of VMEs, resulting in the following structure to replicate that approach: (i) Details of Bottom Fisheries, (ii) Details of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems, (iii) Assessments of VME Impacts, (iv) Management Strategies to conserve VMEs, and (v) Management Advice. The long lists of tasks currently before the Scientific Committee and its working groups have been embedded within this structure in order to give them a greater context than as the lists from our reports. This should help each working group prioritise the future work and identify the key methods, parameters or field strategies that need to be undertaken. Discussions to date would suggest that the report be routinely update each year in WG-FSA but with input from WG-SAM on the development of assessment and evaluation methods, and from WG-EMM on consideration of the objectives for VMEs and their ecology would occur in WG-EMM. The assessments and advice would arise from WG-FSA. It is envisaged that, following comments by WG-EMM, a draft report will be generated as far as possible for consideration by WG-FSA later in the year.

High densities of pterobranchs (Phylum Hemichordata: Class Pterobranchia) and sea pens (Phylum Cnidaria: Order Pennatulacea), two vulnerable marine ecosystem (VME) indicator taxa, were encountered at sites on the shelf of the eastern South Orkney Islands. The details of these encounters, utilizing occurrence and abundance in bottom trawl catches, are provided. The distributions of standardized densities for these taxa reveal at least one station location for each taxa with anomalously high levels of biomass. These two stations should be considered for designation as VMEs. This proposal is structured according to the guidelines set out in Conservation Measure 22-06 (2009), ANNEX 22-06/B.

An update on the citation ranking of CCAMLR Science and the online publication developments are provided. The Working Group is invited to comment on the procedures for citing and public access to working group documents and the process of document submission to working groups. All authors and reviewers are thanked for their continued support to CCAMLR Science.