According to the recommendations of the Scientific Committee and Commission (SC-CAMLR-XXXIII, paragraphs 3.231 и 3.232; СС-CAMLR-XXXIII, paragraph 5.67; CCAMLR-XXXIV, paragraphs 3.86-3.87) Russia provided comprehensive examination  of the fishing vessel «Yantar 35» activity   during researches  conducted in the Weddell Sea (Subarea 48.5) based on the  previously provided analysis.

At WG-SAM-16, the Working Group discussed the implications of toothfish moving long distances after the Chilean research survey for Dissostichus spp. in Subarea 48.2 recaptured one tagged fish in 2016 that had been released in Subarea 48.6 in 2011 (WG-SAM-16/20). The Working Group noted that to date the majority of tagged toothfish movements were very restricted in distance and requested that the Secretariat update its previous meta-analysis of the long distance movement of tagged fish throughout the CCAMLR area for consideration by the WG-FSA (WG-SAM-16, paragraphs 4.46 – 4.48). Analyses of toothfish movements have been recently conducted for release and recapture data within Subarea 48.3 (WG-FSA-14/49), within Subareas 88.1 and 88.2 (WG-FSA-15/37) as well as within Division 58.5.2 (WG-FSA-14/43). This paper analyses toothfish tag-recapture data (2006 – 2016) from across the whole Convention Area to assess long distance movements and behaviour by species, location and sex with a focus on movements between management areas.

This paper summarises the data collected by Scientific Observers operating in the Convention Area on board longline and finfish trawl vessels during the 2016 season (based on data received by the Secretariat up to 19 September 2016). Information on observer coverage, incidental mortality (including the implementation of mitigation related CMs), tagging, and fish sampling is presented.

This paper discusses the two current marine protected area (MPA) proposals, for East Antarctica and for the Ross Sea, and assesses their potential economic impact on commercial fishing for Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) and Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). The paper concludes that the proposed MPAs will have a minimal impact on current overall catch limits for the target stocks when new catch spread scenarios are taken into account. For example, the Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish stock total catch limit would remain unchanged by the fishing effort being reallocated away from the sensitive continental shelf. The East Antarctic MPA proposal would permit fishing where the fishing will not impact the specific objectives of the MPA. In both of these MPAs, biodiversity and scientific gains could be substantial, while having little impact on current fishing as effort can either be relocated or would not be affected.

The MPA proposals in waters governed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) have been developed to protect representative aspects of biodiversity, for research, and as a baseline and comparison for monitoring the impacts of climate change. It is important to note that the fisheries currently operating in these waters represent a small fraction of the total reported catch by tonnage and value of the global catch of the participating Members.

This paper presents the outcomes from the application of the risk assessment framework for distributing the krill trigger level in Area 48, which was described in Part 1 of this work (WG-FSA-16/47). This second part has two additional components of work: (i) results of the analyses using the data within the risk assessment framework, and (ii) a discussion of the implications of this work, including consideration of the matters raised by WG-EMM in 2016.  The framework presented in Part 1 is shown to enable assembling relevant data on krill, predators, management and the fishery to assess the risks of disproportionate local effects of the krill fishery.  It can be used to readily explore the potential consequences of different fishing scenarios given the state of knowledge.  The results presented here provide the input needed for the review of CM51-07 and the means by which further scenarios may be explored in that review.  The assessment primarily uses two factors to underpin the index of risk – the potential for fishing effects in areas with higher proportions of young krill (source areas) and predation pressure which is a measure of the potential for competition in local areas.  Given the scenarios here, Subarea 48.1 and, some of its SSMUs in particular, are potentially exposed to disproportionate effects of fishing, which may be occurring at present because of the much larger catch possible under CM51-07 than the baseline would indicate would be appropriate.   This is consistent with the earlier findings of Watters et al (2013) in which FOOSA was used to explore the consequences of different harvest strategies on SSMUs in Area 48. 

Japan and France have revised the next season’s (2016/17) research plan in research blocks 58.4.4b_1 and 58.4.4b_2 using the latest CCAMLR C2 and Observer data, following several advices during WG-SAM meeting in 2016.

We have used extracted data provided by CCAMLR Secretariat in this late August for the current analysis, but not used the cleaning data provided by them in this early September due to tight schedule for the submission.

The estimated median stock size in block 58.4.4b_1 and 58.4.4b_2 was 776, and 583 tonnes, respectively, in Chapman estimator considering tags released in the last three years as effective for the calculation following the recommendation in the last WG-SAM meeting. The estimated median stock size in block 58.4.4b_1 and 58.4.4b_2 was 465 and 507 tonnes, respectively, in CPUE analogy method (reference area: HIMI) using the relevant information of reference area (recent median CPUE, estimated biomass and updated area size) recommended in the last WG-SAM meeting.

The geographical distribution of different size groups shows that small fish <60cm mainly occur in the shallow area in SSRU B. It is suggested that some juveniles in SSRU B migrate to other SSRUs and become important resources for whole SSRUs, although no migration has been observed between SSRUs to date.

Predicted numbers of tag recaptures from the estimated stock sizes using both Chapman and CPUE analogy methods were generally inconsistent with the observed numbers for each block, but the numbers using Chapman were generally closer to the observed ones for both blocks.

We propose to continue the current research operation for the next fishing season with the same survey design and total sample size of 60 tonnes in order to further strengthen the stock assessments in the area. On the other hand, Japan will examine the change of survey design from 2017/18 season taking into account change of CCAMLR's regulatory framework and make a brief presentation about this issue during the WG-FSA meeting.