CCAMLR

In recent years, the Scientific Committee has been dealing with a great diversity of important issues for which the Commission was expecting advice. The current structure of the Working Groups has struggled to address these issues efficiently, leading to expanded time taken on intersessional meetings and a large diversity of important issues.  A number of important issues are not being addressed at present.  In our view, this stems from constraints on the way SC-CAMLR does work. In this paper, we describe these constraints and combine thoughts given to the CCAMLR Symposium in May 2015 on how these issues may be resolved.  In particular, we propose some options for re-organising the work and structure of the Scientific Committee.  These options include having three meeting periods timetabled through the year: a two week period for workshops, a three week period for the Scientific Committee and its working groups and maybe workshops in mid-year, and a short meeting of the Scientific Committee just prior to the annual Commission meeting.  We also suggest a co-ordinating group (bureau) be established in the Scientific Committee, comprising the Chair and Vice-Chairs of the SC and the Convenors of Standing Working Groups (supported by the Secretariat) to co-ordinate the business of the meeting and to stimulate and guide inter-sessional activities.  We provide suggestions for the working groups as well as for improving reports of these meetings.

In accordance with CM 21‐03, Annex 21‐03 A, attached are the net diagram and marine mammal exclusion device diagram to be used in conjunction with the online notifications for the krill fishery in the 2015/16 fishing season submitted for the Ukrainian vessel: More Sodruzhestva.

At WG EMM-2013 the Working Group agreed that it would be useful to have a consolidated summary of information related to the krill fishery in a similar format to the fishery reports that are completed for finfish fisheries in WG-FSA (www.ccamlr.org/node/75667).

The Secretariat agreed to coordinate the preparation of a draft krill fishery report for consideration at WG EMM-14 that would be similar in content to a finfish Fishery Report.

Upon the recommendations from WG EMM-14 the report includes the same information provided in the previous report (i.e. an introduction on the background of the fishery, an inventory of catch and SISO data, including incidental mortality of marine mammals and seabirds as well as the CCAMLR approach to management of the krill fishery) with the addition of monthly catch maps for the last complete seasons (2014) and the current incomplete season (2015), an inventory of observer data effort since 2011 and a comparison bycatch occurrence in C1 and SISO data.

RV Tangaroa carried out a 42-day research voyage to the Ross Sea from 29 January to 11 March 2015. The main purpose of the New Zealand-Australia Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage (TAN1502) was to undertake ecological studies of Ross Sea marine foodwebs of importance to top predators. The work was centred on the feeding areas of cetaceans, primarily blue whales and humpback whales, and in the Ross Sea slope area, which is the main fishing ground for the Ross Sea toothfish fishery. Whales were located using passive acoustics and visual observations. Observations of prey species were collected with multifrequency echosounders with associated midwater and demersal trawling. Associated oceanographic and atmospheric observations were made while underway. Samples of prey species and whale tissue (from biopsy) were collected for trophic (stable isotope) studies. Weather conditions during the voyage were excellent and all five science objectives were successfully completed. The voyage was supported by funding from Antarctica New Zealand (ANZ), the New Zealand Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited (NIWA).

In this paper, we develop a candidate management system for the krill fishery suitable for achieving objectives for krill and its predators in local areas. We also indicate how this management system can be made operational in the early phases of a fishery in a local area, which can then be enhanced as the fishery develops, including testing future management procedures and in adapting them to a changing ecosystem. A local area decision rule is proposed for using krill biomass density and recruitment strength in a given year to determine an adjustment of the long-term annual catch for the area in the following year. This decision rule is designed to keep the probabilities of low reproductive performance by predators at acceptable levels in the long term. The process for undertaking the assessment and its application is demonstrated.