CCAMLR

The attached draft conservation measure establishing the East Antarctic Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (EARSMPA) is a revision of the proposal submitted to CCAMLR XXXIII (CCAMLR XXXIII/23). A draft conservation measure has been under consideration by the Commission since 2012. The latest amendments reflect the changes outlined in the ‘Current Thinking’ paper (CCAMLR XXXIII/BG40), as well as other suggestions made by Members in the intersessional period. The proposal also reflects the advice of the Scientific Committee at SC-CAMLR XXX, SC-CAMLR IM-I and SC-CAMLR XXXII that the proposal is based on the best available science.

Conservation Measure 10-09 requires advance notification for all transhipment activities that occur inside the Convention Area.  However, as noted by SCIC in 2014, it is not clear whether the current measure allows for transhipment by or with vessels flagged to non-Contracting Parties (NCP), nor is it clear whether transhipment constitutes fishing for the purposes of Conservation Measure 10-02.

The delegation of the United States proposes to amend CCAMLR Conservation Measures 10-02 and 10-09 to clarify that Contracting Party vessels engaged in transhipment activities within the Convention Area, or of marine living resources harvested within the Convention Area, must be licensed and notified in accordance with Conservation Measure 10-02.  The proposal would also establish an NCP Transhipment Vessel Record containing the vessels of NCPs that would be authorized to tranship with Contracting Party vessels, through a procedure for granting non-Contracting Parties a status of non-Contracting Parties cooperating with CCAMLR in the monitoring and control of transhipment.  This procedure would require that non-Contracting Parties seeking to obtain or retain such status require all of their flagged vessels engaged in transhipment activities within the Convention Area, or in transhipment of marine living resources harvested within the Convention Area, be included in the NCP Transhipment Vessel Record.  The vessels on the NCP Transhipment Vessel Record would be required to report their positions to the Secretariat while operating in the Convention Area in accordance with Conservation Measure 10-04.

Analysis of changes to the draft Conservation Measure on establishment of an MPA in the East Antarctic System (EARSMPA).

Over the last three to four years the question has been raised in working groups and the CCAMLR Scientific Committee regarding the provision of resources for research in open and closed SSRUs in the Ross Sea. According to established practice and as a rule, if the research was conducted in open SSRUs, then the required proportion of the target species to be removed was taken from the TAC for that SSRU. If the research was carried out in closed SSRUs, then, as a rule, the TAC was taken from the largest TAC for the Ross Sea, from SSRUs HIK. We propose that research TACs be set for all closed SSRUs in the Ross Sea and Amundsen Sea.

The development of a feedback management strategy for the krill fishery (feedback management, FBM) is one of the priority tasks being undertaken by the Scientific Committee and WG-EMM in recent years.  An integral part of developing an FBM should be studying the risks of impact that methods under development for spatially distributing the catch will have on the fleet's performance parameters.

At CCAMLR-XXXIII the Commission noted the discussion in the Scientific Committee on activities concerning toothfish in SSRUs 882A–B, where a clearer association of these SSRUs with the Ross Sea stock was considered, and recalled the discussion of the Commission in 2013 regarding the rationale for the revision of the boundary between Subareas 88.1 and 88.2. The Commission also reviewed last year's advice from the Scientific Committee on the matter (SC-CAMLR-XXXII, paragraph 3.160). The Commission was unable to make a decision based on this advice in  2013 (CCAMLR-XXXII, paragraphs 5.34–5.36), nor at the 2014 meeting. The commission encouraged Members to continue working on this issue intersessionally so that the Scientific Committee and its working groups can review it in 2015. The Scientific Committee asked the Commission to consider the matter again next year (SC-CAMLR-XXXIII, paragraph 3.228).

Biodiversity in candidate areas to be afforded protection based on historical observer data and data from research cruises in the Weddell Sea.

One condition for designating candidate sites to be afforded protection in the Weddell Sea is the subsequent yearly monitoring of these sites from research and fishing vessels, therefore knowledge about changes in interannual and seasonal ice dynamics is a fundamental factor for the successful completion of assigned research tasks in these designated waters. This also requires analysis of the navigation component.