CCAMLR’s 2012 mid-year science meetings are being held at the Centro Oceanográfico de Canarias, Instituto Español de Oceanografía in Tenerife. The Working Group on Statistics, Assessments and Modelling (WG-SAM) and the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG-EMM) are meeting over a three-week period in June and July 2012 to discuss methods and processes relevant to the fisheries and ecosystem of the Southern Ocean. The meetings are being held at the Institute’s new premises, located a safe distance from the rock face which severely damaged the Institute’s previous home, a facility where WG-EMM had met in 1999 and another CCAMLR working group had met in 1991.

WG-SAM will review the tagging program currently in place in exploratory fisheries for toothfish, evaluate the research plans associated with notifications for exploratory fisheries in Subareas 48.6 and 58.4 in 2012/13, and review fishery research proposals for other areas. Participants are currently being greeted by ‘La calima’, a suspension of fine dust blown from the Sahara desert.

WG-EMM focuses on the krill-centric ecosystem and the management of the krill fishery including consideration of recruitment variation, estimates of precautionary yield, deployment of scientific observers and development of a feed-back management strategy for the fishery. WG-EMM will also discuss progress in developing a representative system of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean.