The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has finished its annual meetings in Hobart, Australia, resulting in new measures strengthening marine conservation in the Southern Ocean.
Main outcomes of CCAMLR’s annual meetings 2012
- Research will be conducted in five Antarctic areas where little or no research has previously been conducted. The data-poor areas, where strictly limited exploratory fishing for toothfish is permitted, are situated in the southern Indian Ocean and South Atlantic sectors. Extensive research plans, developed by Members over several years in the Commission’s Scientific Committee and its Working Groups, have now been adopted for the 2012/2013 fishing season starting 1 December 2012.
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New procedures for estimating green weight (live catch) in krill fisheries have been adopted in the Commission. This refined way of measuring live catch will improve the accuracy of catch data, which accordingly will improve setting catch limits.
- A feed-back management system for krill fisheries, using real-time abundance of krill catch data, is being developed. This management system involves commercial fishing vessels collecting acoustic and other data, which will be used for research and estimating krill abundance, status and trends.
- A Special Meeting of the Commission will be held in Germany in July 2013, preceded by a meeting of the Scientific Committee, continuing discussions and negotiations on the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Antarctica.