CCAMLR

Following advice from WG-SAM-15, a revised version of the reserach proposal for toothfish in Subarea 48.2 is presented (WG-SAM-15/53).  

The Scientific Committee encouraged Members to consider potential ways in which its work could be streamlined. In early September the Chair and the Vice Chairs of the Scientific Committee, and Conveners of the Working Groups and Subgroup, together with the Secretariat held a tele-conference to discuss how to best address this issue at the Scientific Committee this year. The meeting agreed that the Conveners of the Working Groups (WG-EMM, WG-SAM, and WG-FSA) and the Subgroup (SG-ASAM) prepare a joint SC paper summarising priorities of each group for the next 4 years for the basis of the discussion at the Scientific Committee.

Main points of this paper:

• WG-EMM: Progressing the staged approach for developing the Feedback Management for krill fishery must be the priority for the WG-EMM for the next 4 years. This is solely a task for WG-EMM but will require close interactions with other groups to seek evaluations and advice on specific issues under their expertise.
• WG-SAM continues to develop the methods necessary to construct robust integrated stock assessments and implement the decision rules.
• WG-FSA does not have to sit for two weeks every year and a shorter meeting in non-assessment years could enable targeted workshops to be held to address specific topics at other times of the year to enable the broadest participation of experts.
• Developing a clear common understanding of where we are heading with research plans in data poor fisheries could help to free up time for other business.
• The SG-ASAM was established to address the needs for proper acoustic estimation of Antarctic krill and icefish. The current work of SG-ASAM closely links with feedback management, the priority work of WG-EMM and the SC in general.

This paper presents an update of the metrics of capacity and capacity utilisation presented in WG-SAM 14/19 in order to monitor trends in capacity in exploratory toothfish fisheries in Subareas 88.1 and 88.2. The updated metrics show the same pattern as the metrics based on the data up 2013 and do not indicate an excess capacity in the fishery. A measure of potential daily fishing capacity as a function of the catch limit for an area indicates that for some management areas the notified fishing capacity is in excess of the level that would allow the Secretariat to forecast and issue a closure notice.

The product to green-weight conversion factors used in the toothfish fishery are integral to the reporting of catches and reconciling those catches with data reported via the CDS. This paper reviews the data available on conversion factor in the C2 and Observer data as well as the factors that might influence those conversion factors. There was considerable inter-vessel variability as well as an apparent long-term trend in the most commonly reported conversion factors. This variability persisted even within the same processing code, suggesting that more details on the processing methods may be required to better understand the sources of this variability. The results suggest that a reconciliation between the reported catch for a vessel and the weight of product reported in a catch document submitted to the CDS should be based on a conversion of the ‘green weight’ for each haul in the C2 data to a product weight as this will be based on the most appropriate conversion factor available

A collaborative initiative to examine Antarctic toothfish (Dissosticus mawsoni) movement and habitat preference is being developed to support the research and monitoring within the proposed Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area.  The objective is to deploy mark-report pop-off (mrPAT) tags and pop-up archival (MiniPAT) tags on fish within the General Protection Zone (GPZ) and Special Research Zone (SRZ) as set out in the Ross Sea Region MPA proposal (CCAMLR-XXXIV/29). Members with fishing vessels who may be fishing in these proposed areas during the 2015/16 and 2016/17 fishing seasons are invited to participate in this research.

Within the CCAMLR Area, the toothfish longline fishery is subject to depredation by top predators using the fishery as a source of additional food provisioning in several subareas. Depredation by toothed whales is well observed and documented in some subareas, but information on depredation by other species is not consistently or regularly recorded throughout the CCAMLR Area. This paper presents a first guide of identifiable depredation marks left by different predators such as characteristic cuts, wounds and suckers’ imprints as an identification aide and supporting tool to the CCAMLR observers to simplify collection of depredation data.

A summary of progress made regarding the ageing and growth studies for Dissostichus mawsoni from Division 58.4.1 is presented. It is included the methodology used in the otolith preparation and the interpretation criteria applied on age estimation, as well as the age-length key and growth parameters estimates by sex. Growth parameters obtained using length-age pair values are: L_∞: 154.4, k: 0.1399 and t₀: 1.321 for males; L_∞: 166.6, k: 0.1322 and t₀: 1.571 for females; and L_∞: 168.2, k: 0.1141 and t₀: 0.8488 all combined.  

At the 2014/15 season the Spanish FV TRONIO had to return to Montevideo due to a collision with an ice block which caused a problem in a propeller, so it couldn’t perform the proposed research fishing in the 58.4.1 Division. A request to consider how to maximize the likelihood to undertake its research commitments was made by the WG-SAM-15. A minimum of 30 days within the 58.4.1 Division is established, except force majeure, fulfilling Spain's commitment to return to the same fishing areas where the depletion experience has been accomplished. The methodology of the proposal described below is the same as presented in the document WG-SAM-15/02. 

In response to a request from the Scientific Committee the Secretariat has initiated a process to utilise VMS data for data-quality assurance in relation to catch data. This represents a change in focus on the use of VMS data by CCAMLR and requires a contingent change in emphasis on data quality assurance processes in order to ensure that the VMS can be used with an appropriate degree of confidence for compliance analysis and improving the quality of other georeferenced data.