CCAMLR

This paper presents the CCAMLR website redevelopment project plan as well as a plan for the CCAMLR brochure.

At CCAMLR-XXXVII, the Commission agreed that the timing and arrangements for its meetings could be a subject for further discussion at its meeting in 2019. This paper reviews past practices, explores three alternatives for shortening the meeting from 10 working days to 9 working days, and options for timing of the meetings that avoid any dates in November.

In 2018 EU provided a further grant of €50 000 to support to CCAMLR to identify and deter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities that undermine the objective of the CAMLR Convention. In order to meet the objectives of the grant, INTERPOL was contracted, and the 2019 activities of the Global Fisheries Enforcement Project are supported. This paper presents the report submitted by INTERPOL in relation to activities between 1 January 2019 to 31 August 2019, including future proposed activities.

A revised approach to the estimation of longline fisheries footprints is presented. The method uses a data-derived estimate of the uncertainty around the locations of longlines to define a buffer around these lines. Within a georeferenced framework, buffered lines are then matched to a 10km grid. The proportion of the area of each grid cell that is covered by buffered lines is then used as a footprint index.

Este documento contiene los informes de los Miembros pertinentes sobre las actividades de sus barcos en la Subárea 88.1 antes del inicio de la temporada 2017/18 solicitados por SCIC-18 y presentados con 45 días de antelación a la reunión anual (i.e., a más tardar el 6 de septiembre de 2019).

The “Expert Workshop on Pelagic Spatial Planning for the eastern subantarctic region (Domains 4, 5 and 6)” was held in Cape Town ( South Africa) between 26th and 30th August 2019. The workshop developed a scientific work program that will result in both pelagic abiotic and biotic classifications of the Planning Domains using geographic, biological and oceanographic features. Distributions of plankton, mesopelagic fish and top predators were considered to be relevant to future ecoregionalization showing latitudinal patterns of communities for the pelagic species. The importance of frontal zones such as the Antarctic Polar Front, Subantarctic Front and the Subtropical Front were highlighted. The latitudinal zonation of bioregions (based on abiotic and chlorophyll clustering) according to frontal zones may be influenced by climate change and will influence the spatial distribution of pelagic assemblages. This will have consequences for marine bird and mammal populations as it will change the habitat of their main pelagic prey species (e.g. euphausiids, squids, mesopelagic fish, etc.).

The workshop highlighted that ecoregionalisation which combines abiotic regionalisation (or bioregionalisation) and species biogeographical distributions has to be conducted at the scale of plateaus and oceanic zones between them which includes areas outside the national jurisdiction i.e. a more detailed level than what has been done to date. High productive pelagic areas must be considered in relation to the bathymetry, iron enrichment, fronts and island mass effects, which contrast with high nutrient low chlorophyll areas farther south.

The subantarctic islands are known to support substantial colonies of seabirds and seals, which for several species have global importance. The high productivity in the vicinity of the islands, together with the large aggregations of seabirds and seals found at the islands, attract various other animals, e.g. several cetaceans, to their vicinity. The populations of several seabirds that breed at the islands have decreased. Although there is cumulative evidence that decreases of albatrosses and petrels have been substantially influenced by by-catch mortality in fisheries, the decreases in some penguins are probably attributable to decreased availability of prey. Thus, the workshop reported herein represents the logical progression of previous work conducted (WG-EMM 12/33) towards addressing these considerations. Specifically, the workshop developed a detailed and logical plan of scientific work that will lead to a regional (i.e. pan-subantarctic) overview of ecosystem structure and function which can be used in any future spatial conservation planning or risk assessments in such a dynamic pelagic environment.