CCAMLR

The Committee on Environmental Protection and SC-CAMLR have endorsed the proposal to hold a second Joint CEP/SC-CAMLR Workshop in 2016. The agreed general scope of the workshop is to identify the effects of climate change that are considered most likely to impact the conservation of the Antarctic, and to identify existing and potential sources of research and monitoring data relevant to the CEP and SC-CAMLR. At its meeting in 2015, the CEP discussed the workshop Terms of Reference, Steering Committee and workshop participation, and its possible location and timing. In order to make further progress on planning for the 2016 joint workshop, we encourage WG-EMM to:

1. Consider items to be included in a draft Agenda, based on the proposed Terms of Reference
2. Make further nominations for the Steering Committee, if required
3. Consider potential invited experts who could provide relevant input to the workshop
4. Discuss options for location and timing of the workshop, and remote participation
5. Provide recommendations on the above points to the Steering Committee, and SC-CAMLR-XXXIV as appropriate.

In this paper, we describe developments towards a set of standard diagnostic principles and tools used to characterise assessment models. CCAMLR has yet to develop a set of recommended statistical diagnostics tools to support their evaluations. While there are a number of standard visual and statistical diagnostics available for integrated assessments, their sufficiency to evaluate if a model is well specified and fits the data adequately needs to be considered. This paper provides a platform for discussions about describing the characteristics and diagnostic information needs that are common to integrated stock assessments used by CCAMLR. We further identify evaluations that could be undertaken when performing an assessment, as well as discuss statistical tools that will enable a more systematic evaluation of stock assessment models in the future.

The biomass of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) at the Balleny Islands, Antarctica (67° S 163° E) was estimated from an acoustic transect survey carried out in February 2015. Acoustic data processing followed the recommendations of CCAMLR SG-ASAM.  Two parameterisations of the krill acoustic target strength model were used.  The first parameterisation assumed a vertical orientation of krill, θ, as a normal distribution, mean = 11°, standard deviation = 4°, N(11,4), the second parameterisation used θ = N(-20,28).  Krill biomass using estimated using θ = N(11,4) was 20.8 kilotonnes (coefficient of variation, CV = 0.37), whereas biomass using θ=N(-20,28) was 13.75 kilotonnes (CV = 0.14).  The reduced biomass of the θ=N(-20,28) estimate was caused by differing krill identification ‘dB difference’ windows as well as the conversion factor applied to scale acoustic observations to krill density.

In 2014, the Scientific Committee endorsed a proposal from South Africa that the Secretariat be tasked with developing a proposal for funding support from the Global Environment Facility to build capacity among GEF-eligible CCAMLR Member countries to strengthen their participation in CCAMLR (SC-CAMLR-XXXIII, paragraph 10.30).  This progress report provides an update on the development of a proposal since SC-CAMLR-XXXIII.

Information on the length distribution of krill in the catch, and the spatial and temporal patterns of krill length in the population is essential to assess krill population status and dynamics, and the impacts of a fishery on the stocks. Here, we use generalised additive models (GAM) and generalised additive mixed models (GAMM) to evaluate the spatial and temporal patterns of length in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in CCAMLR Subarea 48.1 derived from data collected by scientific observers. Median krill length showed a complex pattern and varied significantly with fishing location, fishing depth, season, month and vessel. The current sampling strategy to observe krill length in SSMUs in Subarea 48.1 needs to be modified in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the temporal and spatial variability in krill length distribution and to determine the scale of observer coverage in the longer term. Krill length measurements should also be conducted on all vessels in every fishing season to reduce the likelihood of potential biases in the overall krill length estimates.

We also propose a simulation approach to evaluate alternative observer sampling strategies for measurements of particular properties of a krill population that are of interest to the management of the fishery.  

This working paper presents the aims and methodology for a three-year-project (commenced in 2015) assessing size selectivity and escape mortality of Antarctic krill from trawl nets. The project is widely based on acquired experiences from a completed study Net Escapement of Antarctic krill in Trawls (NEAT), presented in WG-EMM 2012/24, WG-EMM 2013/34, WG-EMM 2014/14 and WG-EMM 2014/16. Funding is provided by the Norwegian Research Council and ship-time for executing the field-experiments is offered free-of-charge by two Norwegian commercial fishing companies; Olympic Seafood AS and Aker BioMarine AS. The project will examine krill escape mortality from the codend during a full scale field experiment, model size selectivity and escape mortality in codends including different designs and assess the size selectivity in the trawl body forward of the codend. Based on end results from the preceding examinations we will be able to predict size selectivity and escape mortality from the entire trawl body with the appurtenant mortality for different trawl designs.

The Norwegian fishing vessels involved in krill fisheries are also used to carry out abundance surveys around the South Orkney Islands. The involved companies have accepted running acoustic logging also during periods of commercial fishing. In this paper we give an overview of the properties of these data and demonstrate potential applications for example to extract information on changes in vertical and horizontal distribution patterns over the season.

The data are scrutinized using standard CCAMLR routines for separating krill backscatters from other organisms. The South Orkney fishing grounds are limited compared to the area covered by the assessment survey. The area has remained spatially coherent from year to year during the recent 6 years with some moderate variations, as also is the effort distribution over time in a single season. Vertical distributions inside and outside the fishing area change over the day and night and during the seasons. Diel migration, with krill being distributed close to surface at night and at deeper water at day time, stands out in the fishing area while patterns of distribution and migration is more unclear outside this area. The diel migration in the fishing area is reduced from summer to winter, and krill are generally deeper in May compared to February. The average acoustic backscattering is very variable over time during the season as measured onboard a fishing vessel, but there is no obvious trend indicating declining krill density until May in the study year.

This report is a summary of the past and current penguin research efforts by the Korean Antarctic Program in Barton Peninsula on King George Island. On top of the routine and traditional census and monitoring, new protocols are being implemented more actively such as camera based monitoring and behavior studies using different types of loggers and recorders. This will not only continue but a new project, in collaboration with other partners, is also pursued in the Ross Sea sector, which is designed to examine the prey-predator interaction and to record penguin population trends over a large area. The intent is to contribute to CCAMLR science in more committed and systematic fashion.

The CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) was established to detect changes in krill-based ecosystems to provide a basis for regulating harvesting of Antarctic living marine resources in accordance with the ‘ecosystem approach’.  In 2015 data has been submitted by 9 Members for 15 sites and 12 CEMP parameters. This report provides a summary of CEMP data submissions for the 2015 season as well as a more detailed review of data quality including an analysis and of penguin breeding population size parameters.

As required by Conservation Measure 21-03, Annex 21-03/A, net diagrams and mammal exclusion devices included in Korean krill fishery notifications are submitted by Korea.