CCAMLR

The CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) was established to detect the effects of changes in krill-based ecosystems to provide a basis for regulating harvesting of Antarctic living marine resources in accordance with the ‘ecosystem approach’.

In 2012/13 data has been submitted by six Members for 13 sites and 13 CEMP parameters.  

This report provides a summary of CEMP data submissions for the 2012/13 season.

Brazil is coordinating the implementation of the review of the Management Plan for the Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA) No. 1, Admiralty Bay, King George Island, South Shetland Archipelago. This draft revision of the management plan is has been submitted to WG-EMM to seek the advice of CCAMLR on those aspect of the management plan relevant to living marine resources following the procedures described in ATCM Decision 9 (2005).

In particular the advice of CCAMLR is requested on the proposal that in order to ensure that any commercial harvesting is carried out in a  manner that is consistent with the scientific aims and objectives of the Management Plan, a proposal to undertake such harvesting activities shall be submitted to CCAMLR for its consideration and that  commercial harvesting specified in such a proposal shall only be undertaken with the prior approval of CCAMLR.

At its 2011 meeting, the Scientific Committee agreed that a time series of relative abundance from a well-designed survey could be a useful input into the Ross Sea stock assessment model. The first survey was completed in February (Hanchet al. 2012a). In this paper we provide the results of the second survey in the time series.

The objectives of this second survey were:

1. To carry out a longline survey to monitor subadult toothfish in the southern Ross Sea (strata A–C) using standardised gear in a standardised manner; and
2. To sample additional experimental stations in adjacent areas to identify areas of high subadult abundance which could be included as strata in future annual surveys.

A research proposal to continue the southern Ross Sea subadult toothfish survey is presented. The survey will focus on estimating relative abundance in the core strata (A, B, C) in SSRUs 88.1 J and 88.1L, and will conduct exploratory sets in a newly defined stratum I in southern SSRU 88.1 M. Survey timing and methods will remain the same as in previous years, although the number of sets is proposed to be reduced by 5 sets to a total of 60 sets.

A retrospective analysis and sensitivity evaluation of the performance of the CCAMLR harvest control rule for the mackerel icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari) in Subarea 48.3 are described. The review indicates that the approach is providing consistent, precautionary estimates of future biomass and potential catches. As required to conform to the CCAMLR objectives the harvest control rule generates low levels of exploitation that are considered precautionary and would conform to the ecosystem approach by having an almost negligible impact on the stock.