CCAMLR

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. 

The current CCAMLR assessment method for the mackerel icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari) in sub‐area 48.3 employs the CMIX and GYM packages, which derives population numbers‐at‐age and projects these numbers forward under the given harvest control rule to set a two‐year TAC. One issue is the accurate identification of age cohorts from the survey data. In this paper we describe a length‐based approach that removes the problem of cohort determination. A stratified bootstrap technique (consistent with the current CCAMLR approach) is used to estimate the length distribution of the population from the survey data which, in conjunction with the bootstrapped survey biomass data, yields an estimate of the population numbers‐at‐length.

A comparison of this method and the existing age‐based CMIX/GYM methodology showed very good agreement in calculated yields for 2006, 2007 and 2009, and some differences for 2008 which were explained by an unusual length distribution from which it was difficult to reliably estimate age composition in CMIX. Using the 2009 survey data and the new methodology, we calculated a TAC according to the CCAMLR decision rules of 1577t and 933t for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 fishing seasons respectively. The respective estimates using the existing CMIX/GYM methodology were 1590t and 968t respectively

Le présent document synthétise les observations françaises en matière de pêche illicite pour l'année écoulée. Il propose une analyse des évolutions du phénomène et des axes d'amélioration de la lutte.

Le dispositif de surveillance des zones économiques exclusives (ZEE) françaises déployé par la France a été maintenu tout au long de l’année. Il s’est révélé efficace, et la pêche INN ne se manifeste plus dans les ZEE. Les relevages d’engins de pêche INN sont en diminution constante depuis 2004. La ressource durement éprouvée par la pêche INN dans les ZEE de Kerguelen et de Crozet est aujourd’hui sauvegardée. S’il existe une faible possibilité d’incursions passagères, elle demeure trop incertaine pour permettre d’affirmer que des prélèvements INN ont eu lieu dans les ZEE de Crozet et de Kerguelen.

La pêche INN continue de se manifester en zone CCAMLR dans les eaux internationales, avec cependant moins de vigueur que les années précédentes. Le schéma annuel de travail de la flottille INN semble aussi s’être modifié, avec une relative désaffection des bancs Banzare et Elan cette saison et une réorientation des activités illicites vers des haut fonds de moindre importance (Marion Dufresne seamont), plus disséminés (Bruce bank, Ob et Lena seamont), mais parfois en limite de ZEE de Kerguelen (Lameyde Ridge).

La tendance à utiliser le filet maillant est confirmée, tous les navires INN observés semblent utiliser cette technique de pêche.

La présence de moyens de surveillance portant les marques de la CCAMLR ne semble pas suffisante pour dissuader totalement les navires INN de poursuivre leurs activités. Cependant les éléments observés ces derniers mois montrent un net ralentissement des activités INN.

Il est désormais reconnu qu'un changement climatique régional est effectivement en cours en Antarctique, en particulier dans la région de la péninsule antarctique. L'effondrement de la plate-forme glaciaire en est l'un des signes les plus évidents ; globalement, 87% des glaciers de la Péninsule ont reculé ces dernières décennies. L'effondrement de la plate-forme glaciaire entraînera de nouveaux habitats marins et une colonisation biologique. La colonisation de ces habitats pourrait ne concerner que des espèces provenant des zones immédiatement adjacentes à la plate-forme glaciaire qui s'est effondrée ; néanmoins, d'autres processus complexes risquent de se manifester, car le réchauffement des eaux pourrait favoriser le retour d'espèces dont la présence dans la région date du dernier interglaciaire, une période plus chaude qu'à présent. De plus, une altération de la dynamique écosystémique peut aussi favoriser l'invasion de nouvelles espèces exogènes, car le réchauffement des océans pourrait supprimer les barrières physiologiques qui, par le passé, avaient entraîné l'isolation du benthos antarctique. Étant donné la complexité des interactions possibles et la nécessité de les étudier en l'absence de toute autre perturbation anthropique, nous recommandons la création d'aires marines protégées sans capture pour les lieux se trouvant sous les plates-formes glaciaires actuelles (en date de 2010) des sous-zones 48.1, 48.5 et 88.3, et de ne pas modifier leur délimitation à l'avenir, même en cas d'effondrement ou de recul des plates-formes glaciaires.