CCAMLR

In previous years we revealed that period 2006-2011 is characterized by the highest values of standardized CPUE indices in the Subarea 48.1 for the last 25 years. We continue to investigate krill fishery data for understanding reasons of this ‘high CPUE’ regime. The authors present the analysis of spatial - temporal variability of krill fishery based on CPUE trends, trawling duration, catch per haul, fishing efforts (hours fished) and vessel locations for traditional and continuous fishing methods. Our investigation shows how fishery operated by years and month in each SSMUs with special attention to differences between national fleets. It was shown also significant variability in fishing indices based on different fishing methods as well as between national fleets using traditional fishing method.

We obtained the additional evidence that ‘high CPUE’ regime’ in 2006-2011 is not associated with the changes in fishing methods but is result of the influence of changing environment. Impact of fishing methods on fleet locations was not revealed also.    

Our opinion is that climate changes can become the reason for the changes in sea ice locations and krill abundance and distribution affecting fishery strategy and performance. The important evidence of above said is the СPUE regimes switching observed in long-term fishery.

We suggest that information on variability of krill fishable biomass distribution in connection to the fishery performance will promote important platform for developing feedback management procedures for krill fishery in Subarea 48.1 as well as in Area 48. The source of this information should be acoustic surveys and observations onboard krill fishing vessels.

A National Workshop on CCAMLR MPAs was conducted at Valparaiso, Chile, 13-14 May 2014. Main points discussed were the significance of each conservation objective for the process, the best way to implement each objective in the analysis and data gaps. Outputs of the workshop are expected to contribute to the general discussion on MPA planning for Domain 1.

Presented Annex 21-03/A as required by Conservation Measure 21-03 with set nets configuration and scheme of marine mammal exclusion device.

Ground counts during 1959-1968 compared with counts using high resolution satellite imagery during 2008-2012 indicated many fewer Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) at the two major molting haul outs in the western Ross Sea: Edisto Inlet - Moubray Bay, northern Victoria Land, and southeastern McMurdo Sound, southern Victoria Land. Breeding seals have apparently all but disappeared from Edisto-Moubray as well. The timing of decline, or perhaps spreading (low numbers of seals in more places), is unknown but appears unrelated to changes in sea ice conditions, which was our initial hypothesis. We analyzed both historic and satellite-derived ice data but found only an expansion of pack ice in the larger region and a thinning of fast ice along Victoria Land (conceivably beneficial to seals). Timing of freeze and breakup of the fast ice remains the same. The only other major change to the Ross Sea ecosystem that would have negatively affected seals has been the large-scale removal of large Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni), a major prey, by a fishery operating full scale by 2003. Coincident with the fishery, lower numbers and size of toothfish have been reported in McMurdo Sound and data from seals tracked by satellite indicate wider foraging range during winter than 20 years ago. A large-scale seal monitoring program is required to prove that the fishery is not involved.

What is the spatial scale of monitoring conducted at an individual CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) site? Answering this question is key to understanding how CEMP data could be used in a feedback management strategy and for identifying critical gaps in monitoring effort where new monitoring effort may be useful. Toward this goal, we investigated data sets from two Pygoscelid penguin species that are monitored at three sites on King George Island/Isla 25 de Mayo, within 30km of one another. We used five indices that fall under three main categories of census (breeders and chicks), reproductive success (crèche rates), and chick growth (fledge weights). We found strong positive correlations across sites in census data, implying similar information is being collected at all three sites. We also found evidence of and site- and species-specific differences that highlight heterogeneity in indices of reproductive success and chick growth on local scales. Heterogeneity on such a small spatial scales suggests the need for CEMP monitoring to be distributed widely to encapsulate population responses to changing environments and fishing activity. Within a broad network of CEMP monitoring, it may also be useful to have several monitoring clusters like that on King George Island to help identify the relative importance of local environmental factors and better estimate the range of variability that such factors can introduce into CEMP indices; partitioning such variability seems critical for resolving environmental and fishery impacts on monitored predators.

This report presents the results of the second workshop for identifying Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Domain 1 of CCAMLR. The results of the first Workshop were presented in WG-EMM-12/69.

This second workshop was organized as bilateral meeting between Chile and Argentina in order to review the progress achieved since the first international workshop held at Valparaíso in 2012. The list of assistants is provided in Annex 1. The workshop was held at La Serena, Chile, between 2-4 September 2013.

We compare the diet and the foraging distribution of Adélie penguins at Hope Bay/Esperanza, during the late part of the breeding season and their subsequent post breeding dispersal in two consecutive years. We also compare data from the krill fishery to describe Adélie penguin foraging areas with krill fishery activity at spatial and temporal scale.

During both seasons, the bulk of the diet was represented by krill. Foraging locations during the breeding period were concentrated to the west of the colony and in the northern Bransfield Strait/Mar de la Flota in both years. During the pre-moulting period, Adélie penguins dispersed away from the colony and foraged further to the east in the northern Weddell Sea up to 400 km from the colony. During the breeding period of 2013, Adélie foraging areas and fishery activity showed an overlap in both temporal and spatial scale; no such direct overlap was apparent during the following season.

Our results showed that foraging areas during breeding and postbreeding dispersal are consistent across years, suggesting that the Bransfield - Weddell shift region is an important feeding area for Adélie penguins breeding in the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

More than 100 research SCUBA-dives to depths till 60 meters (2003-2004), and more than 40 research SCUBA-dives to depth till 50 meters (2011-2012) was provided. During the summer season of the 19th Ukrainian Antarctic expedition in 2014 twenty research SCUBA-dives were carried out during which a survey of the two already proposed MPAs was provided. For a further development of Marine Protected Area Network it is necessary for each area to establish a category in accordance with the procedure IUCN. Planned to research two areas: “Stella Creek” and “Skua Creek”.

Understanding the relative contributions of different sources of mortality and survival in predator populations can improve ecosystem models and management of marine ecosystems.  Within the Antarctic bottom-up processes are widely cited for explaining penguin population declines, whereas for Antarctic fur seals, top-down processes are most cited as the primary driver for declining pup production.  This has led to an under emphasis of the role of bottom-up drivers for controlling fur seal production within the system.  We review the historical data in Antarctic pup production and provide annual pup production estimates from 2002-2012 for Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island.  Age-specific natality rates are provided as an indicator of bottom-up drivers and we contrast these with early season neonate mortality and leopard seal predation rates.  Fur seal pup production has undergone a dramatic declines in the last decade (12.1% per annum since 2002).  Since 1998, natality rate has also declined 14%, largely driven by poor recruitment and an aging population.  However, age-specific natality rate has also declined.  Predation rate has increased 4% per year since 2002.  We discuss the relative roles of bottom-up and top-down contributions to the decline in fur seals.      

Research during the last decade has revealed much about the early life history of Pleuragramm antarcticum, including confirmation of the first known nursery ground in Terra Nova Bay. However, there is still much unknown about larval fish distribution in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. During a United States National Science Foundation research cruise in the late austral summer 2013, we opportunistically sampled the icthyoplankton community at 17 locations in the western Ross Sea as well as one location in the central Ross Sea and one location in the far south of the eastern Ross Sea (in the Bay of Whales). Larval P. antarcticum made up more than 99% of the icthyoplankton in the western Ross Sea. Most of these fish had hatched during the current season. Length data from these fish obtained over the course of the cruise supports growth rates and hatching times consistent with reported hatching events in Terra Nova Bay. The most numerous abundances (3400+ in each tow) of larval P. antarcticum were found along the ice margin in the western Ross Sea, further suggesting the importance of sea ice to this species. Finally, a unique tow in the Bay of Whales revealed recently hatched P. antarcticum in mid-March, suggesting the presence of a potential eastern Ross Sea nursery ground. This late hatching period may be explained by latitudinal, climatic and oceanographic variations in this region.