CCAMLR

This report briefly describes observation of floating marine debris made during marine mammal surveys from helicopters west of the Antarctic Peninsula.

This document summarises official French observations of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing over the past year, and reports on implementation of the CCAMLR Inspection System.  It also includes an analysis of developments in IUU fishing and proposes ways of improving actions taken to fight it.

The geographical area covered in this study comprises Statistical Subarea 58.6 and Divisions 58.5.1 and 58.5.2, including the French Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) around Crozet and Kerguelen and the Australian EEZ around Heard and McDonald respectively, and Statistical Divisions 58.4.3 and 58.4.4 (international waters including fishable depths on BANZARE, Elan, Lena and Ob Banks).

Surveillance of these EEZs is undertaken jointly by France and Australia under a bilateral cooperation agreement established between these two countries in 2003. This surveillance system has been operational throughout the year.  It has proved to be effective, in that there is no longer any sign of IUU fishing in the EEZs. The fish stocks, which were badly affected in the Kerguelen and Crozet EEZs until 2004, are now protected. While there may be a faint possibility of short forays being made into the area, it is too slight to enable any positive statement to be made as to IUU catches having taken place in the Crozet and Kerguelen EEZs.

IUU fishing does, however, continue to make its presence felt in the Convention Area in international waters.  The combined effects of a rise in the price of diesel and a drop in the selling price of toothfish had the effect of limiting the numbers of IUU vessels deployed in the Convention Area towards the end of 2008 and at the beginning of 2009, with these vessels preferring to target fisheries closer to ports of unlading. With the effects of these specific economic conditions becoming less pronounced, a fresh upsurge in IUU activities is now being observed in the Convention Area. The increase in the selling price of toothfish serves as an incentive for renewed growth in IUU activities.

IUU fishing activities are regularly observed on the outer edges of the continental shelves outside the EEZs. This season, the IUU fleet has again focused on BANZARE and Elan Banks (Statistical Division 58.4.3) as well as on the more scattered seamounts (Ob and Lena), and occasionally on the boundary of the Kerguelen and Heard EEZs (Lameyne Ridge, Gallienni Spur, Williams Seamount).  A resumption of IUU activities targeting Antarctic toothfish stocks has been observed along the continental shelves, which are accessible in summer.

All IUU vessels observed use gillnets.  A number of them state that some of their crew members, mainly the officers, including captains and fishing masters, are nationals of CCAMLR Member countries.

On the high seas, the presence of surveillance craft showing the CCAMLR insignia has not been sufficient to discourage IUU vessels from pursuing their activities.  Some do not hesitate to change their name and flag under the very eyes of patrol vessels, at distances of only tens of metres.

This Background Paper reports on the various activities conducted by SCAR that are of potential interest to CCAMLR as well as areas where the two organizations are already cooperating.

Annual updates to the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) continue to be made to the Treaty, CCAMLR and others (see accompanying paper). SCAR also now has funds (from Norway, the UK and ASOC) to work on climate change communications, which will be a significant activity over the next year.

The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) is moving into the implementation phase (see accompanying paper). SCAR looks to CCAMLR as a key partner in this initiative.

Three new potential Scientific Research Programmes (SRPs) of relevance to CCAMLR activities are under development: Antarctic Ecosystems: Adaptations, Thresholds and Resilience (AntETR), State of the Antarctic Ecosystem (AntEco) and Antarctic Climate in the 21st Century (AntClim21). As the SRP of most direct relevance to CCAMLR, AntEco has a CCAMLR representative (Keith Reid) on the planning committee. For further details see www.scar.org.

SCAR has several products of relevance to the work of CCAMLR (seehttp://www.scar.org/researchgroups/productsandservices/). In particular, the SCAR-MarBIN data portal continues to gather information on marine biodiversity in the Antarctic, and the CPR Survey continues to grow with more countries contributing, particularly Brazil.

SCAR hopes to continue to explore with CCAMLR areas where the two organisations can work together in mutually beneficial ways.

For further details see www.scar.org

The intersessional meeting focused on the organisation and future of the IWC. The meeting identified a range of options for streamlining the working methods and practices of the Commission which were subsequently discussed in the intersessional period prior to the 60th Annual Meeting. As a result of these discussions, the Commission was able to develop consensus documents on both improved practices and a path towards resolution of substantive issues affecting the IWC. The intersessional meeting was therefore of limited direct relevance to the substance of the work done by CCAMLR but the proposed streamlining of the IWC administrative arrangements may be of interest to some CCAMLR members.

Bottom fisheries are now to ‘avoid significant adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems’ in order to maintain the ecological structure and function of, particularly, deep sea benthic habitats.  Noting the paucity of data on the ecology of these habitats, this paper provides a practical approach to develop and evaluate fishing strategies aimed at achieving this objective i.e. what is the most cost‐effective way that fishers might be able to collectively enact this resolution? The UNGA requirement can be translated into a simple operational objective:  Maintain the quality of habitats above the level that can naturally restore the original structure and function within 20 years.  It does not require habitats to be categorised as “vulnerable marine ecosystems” or “invulnerable marine ecosystems”, a categorisation fraught with difficulty.  Instead, it means that habitats for which this would not easily be met would be more vulnerable than those for which the objective might be met most often.  This paper develops a simulation model for this task, representing key properties of the benthic system such as mosaics of a number of habitats along with their rates of decay, recovery and connectedness between areas. The model has been developed for use by CCAMLR to evaluate, using computer simulations, proposed within‐season and post‐season assessment and management approaches.  Most importantly, the model enables uncertainties to be captured in a straight‐forward manner to assist CCAMLR in maintaining its precautionary approach in managing Antarctic fisheries. The functions developed in this paper provide placeholders in the simulation framework and can be replaced when better functions are developed.  

In recent years there has been an increased focus on reducing ‘residual’ seabird captures that occur during hauling in CCAMLR longline fisheries. Haul captures were first recognised by CCAMLR as a problem as early as 1994/95 when steps were taken to reduce the attraction of birds to vessels during the hauling process.  Since 2003 increased efforts have been made to improve the design and performance of bird exclusion devices (BED) placed around the hauling bay. Observer data collected since 2003 suggests that there are two key aspects of effective BED, firstly that they provide a deterrent to birds landing near to the line as it is being hauled and secondly that birds are deterred from swimming or “jumping” into the area around the hauling bay. Data collected since 2003 are used to classify BEDs into three types and recommendations are made on a Type III BED that was developed in Division 58.5.2 and incorporates the two key functional characteristics required to reduce seabird captures during the haul.