The Antarctic starry skate (Amblyraja georgiana), is currently listed as “Data Deficient” by IUCN (Endicott & Kyne 2009) and is one of the main by-catch species in the longline fishery for Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) around South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. Information is lacking particularly in relation to catches, population trends, and taxonomic uncertainty. Using ten years of tag-recapture data collected around South Georgia, a comprehensive analysis of data on taxonomic identification, stock status and assessment for the Antarctic starry skate around South Georgia and Shag Rocks was undertaken. The outcomes of this study narrowed some of the existing knowledge gaps, address the uncertainties around species differentiation, characterise tag-recapture data from Antarctic starry skates, and provide a preliminary stock assessment, showing that the current level of by-catch exploitation rate of Antarctic starry skates is likely low at around 1% of the estimated biomass.

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) has been granted observer status at the thirty-seventh meetings of the Commission and Scientific Committee. IAATO is a membership organization founded in 1991 to advocate and promote the practice of safe, environmentally responsible private-sector Antarctic travel. It now comprises over 100 member companies, representing the vast majority of all private sector tourism to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. This paper is a brief introduction to the association and its activities including its history, purpose and relevance to the Antarctic Treaty System. An overview of Antarctic tourism trends is also presented.

Ce rapport synthétise les observations faites en matière de pêche illicite du 15 juillet 2017 au 15 juillet 2018 concernant les sous-zones statistiques 58.6, 58.5.1, 58.5.2 incluant les zones sous juridiction françaises de Crozet et des Kerguelen. Il comprend également  des informations d’intérêt général sur les activités de pêche dans les sous-zones statistiques 58.4.3 et 58.4.4, eaux internationales comprenant les bancs Banzare, Elan, Lena et Ob.

Dans les ZEE françaises, où le dispositif de surveillance s’est maintenu sur toute la période, aucune observation d’activité de pêche INN n’a été constatée ou signalée, cependant du matériel de pêche non conforme a été trouvé.

The stock of Antarctic toothfish (D. mawsoni) in CCAMLR subarea 48.4 is estimated from tagging returns to be 982 tonnes in 2018. Applying the CCAMLR agreed precautionary assumption of average biomass across the time series and harvest rate of γ = 0.038, implies a 2018/19 yield of 37 tonnes, unchanged from the 2017/18 catch limit.

Historically, a precautionary approach has been applied in treating the 48.4 Antarctic toothfish as a separate stock. Based on the biological characteristics of the catches in Subarea 48.4, and the surrounding regions, the Antarctic toothfish around the southern South Sandwich Islands are now hypothesised as being part of a much larger stock that extends south into Subarea 48.2, 48.6 and possibly 48.5. The current method of assessment, based on tag returns, consequently, is considered to provide an estimate of the local biomass.

A first Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO) is under development. MEASO aims to provide a forward-looking assessment of what trends in Southern Ocean ecosystems are happening now and into the future, and what may need to be planned for, in terms of research and management. The aim is to have a quantitative assessment that enables managers to achieve consensus in adapting their management strategies to ecosystem change.  MEASO officially began at an international conference held in Hobart in early April 2018 (http://www.measo2018.aq/). The conference provided an opportunity to share relevant science, enhance community input into the design and planning of the MEASO, and to develop a work plan.  Since the conference, summaries of information available for a MEASO have been compiled in order to determine what can be used to assess status and trends within the Southern Ocean on regional and circumpolar scales. This review includes a record of field programmes and ecological surveys, current Southern Ocean syntheses, model coverage and assessments. The types of biological data collected from the field programmes are also being summarised, based on an open, international survey of researchers.  For this survey, an indication of where and when national research programmes have conducted field work were requested, particularly for measures of density (abundance) for different taxonomic and functional groups within the benthos, pelagos and plankton as well as birds and marine mammals. To date 12 countries have contributed to the data survey, coverage of which can be viewed on the Southern Ocean Knowledge and Information wiki: http://soki.aq/display/MEASO/MEASO+Data+Availability.  The work program for the first assessment is detailed in the paper.

The stocks of Antarctic toothfish, Dissostichus mawsoni were a relatively economically and ecologically important fishery resource in the waters of Antarctic. However, there is not enough data and information to assess the robust stocks and deliberate proper measurements for sustainable utilize, especially relate to diet and feeding strategy which may lead to think about ecosystem based stock assessments and fishery managements. Therefore, the Korean scientists analyze diet composition and feeding strategy of D. mawsoni in the research blocks 58 and 88 as a part of Korean research plan for the exploratory longline fishery for Dissostichus spp. during 2014/2018 season. This study was carried out based on the results of stomach content identification of the D. mawsoni caught in the research blocks 58 and 88 in CCAMLR Conversion Area during season (December-March) per year from 2014 to 2018. The diet composition and feeding strategy of D.  mawsoni were studied using 1,786 specimens and 1,062 in the research blocks 58 and 88, respectively. D. mawsoni is a carnivore and piscivorous fish that mainly consumed fishes. Its diet also included small quantities of mollusks, crustaceans, stones, anthozoans, echinoderms, eggs, birds, and mammals. In this study, fishes were the dominant prey item in all size classes (<100 cm, 100-120 cm, 120-140 cm, 140-160 cm, 160< cm). The graphical method for feeding strategy revealed that D. mawsoni is an opportunistic and specialized predator on fishes, and showed narrow niche width.

Data retrieved from five popup satellite-tagged Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) released in the Mawson Sea were analyzed. Toothfish were at liberty for 36-366 days, and yielding yearlong, 15-second data records from a single, recaptured individual.  These fish occupied an overall depth range of 326 to 1824 m and a temperature range of -1.95 to 0.7°C.  Through available depth and temperature data, and albeit limited ability to accurately geolocate deep-diving toothfish, all tagged fish appeared to have remained in the Mawson Sea area for the majority of time at liberty. The recaptured individual exhibited distinctive vertical ascents only in September, during the presumed spawning season, and was estimated to be near shore in the Mawson Sea. These ascents could represent characteristic spawning behavior and suggested Mawson Sea is a potential spawning ground. Future investigation is warranted to observe similar ascents in other individuals, and be analyzed in the greater context of reproductive ecology of Antarctic toothfish. To this end, a tagging configuration is proposed to target logging of putative spawning behavior, and is recommended to put forward to the greater CCAMLR community as standard protocol for popup satellite tagging studies

To highlight ontogenetic and geographical variability in resource utilization of Antarctic toothfish, we investigated neutral fatty acid (NFA) profiles and stable isotopes (SIs) in muscles of toothfish and their potential prey (bycatch and stomach contents), captured in fisheries in the Small Scale Research Units (SSRUs) 88.3 (the Pacific Ocean sector, POS) in austral summer during 2016–2018, making comparisons with previous dataset obtained from the Ross Sea shelf (RSS) and the Indian Ocean sector of the Antarctica during 2012–2017. We found significant differences in size distributions of regional toothfish stocks, demonstrating an ontogenetic movement into deeper water from shelf water. The relative proportions of NFAs of the IOS and POS stocks were similar to each other but differed from those of the shelf (RSS) counterpart. Although not great, isotopic differences between the shelf and slope stocks were detectable in both δ13C and δ15N values. The NFA and SI profiles show a pattern of differences between regional stocks. The NFA profiles of the RSS stock displays a considerable overlap between adults and subadults but also shows a size effect. The IOS and POS stocks showed quite large trophic overlaps, but shared very limited or no space with RSS. Adults and subadults of the RSS had overlapped trophic spaces. Sampling region, depths, and toothfish length serve as strong descriptors for most trophic markers in toothfish, emphasizing both ontogenetic and geographical variability. Finally, the regional variation in trophic niche is explained by different patterns in resource utilization, which are partitioned into two prey groups (i.e. feeding on bathypelagic vs. bathydemersal organisms), between regions and toothfish size, reflecting diet shift during ontogenetic migration across the geographic range of Antarctic waters as confirmed by the combined mixing-model calculations of both trophic markers.