CCAMLR

Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing vessels are increasingly using gillnets as a fishing method to target toothfish in the Convention area. Estimating the impact of IUU fishing is hampered by a lack of data on the design, deployment, catch and bycatch rates of gill nets. This paper describes a gillnet found abandoned by Australian vessel patrolling BANZARE Bank (Statistical Division 58.4.3b), and the toothfish and bycatch found when a section of the gillnet was retrieved. Based on the amount of toothfish found in the 8 km long section of net retrieved, upwards of 29 tonnes of toothfish may be removed by a single vessel’s deployment of a 130 km long series of gillnets.

The NAFO Professional Internship Program is briefly described and it is recommended that the CCAMLR Secretariat be tasked with developing a similar program for CCAMLR.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is proposed between the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and the Secretariat for the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. The objective of this MoU is to facilitate cooperation between the CCAMLR and the ACAP Secretariat with a view to supporting efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP within CCAMLR’s Convention Area.

The research project to digitize former Soviet krill fishing research, exploratory and commercial expedition’s data has been realized in Ukraine at the Southern Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography of the Ukraine State Fishery Committee and at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. This valuable set of krill data was collected during Soviet Union krill-fishing expeditions in Southern Ocean between the years of 1972-1991. The main purpose of these expeditions was to collect data and samples and to create an estimation of the commercial exploitation of the Antarctic krill stock. The data was recorded in the paper forms as expedition logbooks and represent an exclusive set of observations for investigation of the environment and the climate change impact on krill population in the Southern Ocean. The data covers 58 fishing cruise observer logbooks with krill fishing trawl sets, biological krill sampling. Logbook pages were scanned and the information was digitized in the CCAMLR Data Form C1 (2009) - 68 files (C1 forms) total. The project provided the krill fishing efforts and distribution data in Convention areas in electronic format for scientists and CCAMLR consideration for estimations of the changes to the krill ecosystem in connection to climate change and fishing efforts. This project has been fulfilled under support by the USA based Pew Charitable Trusts’ Antarctic Krill Conservation Project.