This paper reports on the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) planning meeting held by the SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Expert Group, 5-7th of July in St Petersburg. The main aim of the meeting was to present some specific plans for different aspects of the SOOS and to agree on key recommendations and actions to move the process forward. The object of a SOOS is to develop the means to observe key changes in oceanography and marine meteorology through time, to relate these to the biota and to underlying processes, and to use that knowledge and understanding as the basis for forecasting future change. SOOS is interested in working with CCAMLR, especially in determining mutual benefits to be realized between SOOS and C-EMP.

This paper reports on the various activities conducted by or involving SCAR that relate directly to CCAMLR or are of potential interest to CCAMLR. This includes a report on the SCAR XXIX Delegates Meeting and Open Science Conference held in Hobart in July 2006, progress with the new Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic (EBA) and the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) projects. CAML has been developing links with the CCAMLR 2008 IPY Survey. The new SCAR-MarBIN data portal continues to gather information on marine biodiversity in Antarctic and SCAR has established a new Action Group on Continuous Plankton Recorder research CPRAG. Both SCAR-MarBIN and CPRAG can provide useful data for CCAMLR. The activities of the Expert Groupss of Birds and Seals are summarised, as well as new research on Ocean-Ice-Atmosphere Systems and interactions. SCAR conducted its third international workshop on marine acoustic studies at the University of Cadiz, Spain in January 2006. A summary is provided in this report. A complete report of the Cadiz workshop is provided in the supplementary SCAR information paper CCAMLR-XXV/BG/23 “Report on the activities of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) 2005/06.”

This paper reports on the various activities conducted by or involving SCAR that relate directly to CCAMLR or are of potential interest to CCAMLR. This includes a report on progress with the new Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic (EBA), SCAR-MarBIN, the Action Group on Continuous Plankton Recorder research and the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) projects. CAML has been developing links with the CCAMLR-IPY Survey. The new SCAR-MarBIN data portal continues to gather information on marine biodiversity in Antarctic and both SCAR-MarBIN and CPRAG have been involved with CCAMLR’s Bioregionalisation Workshop with the provision of data and expertise. The SCAR/SCOR Oceanography Expert Group convened a meeting to develop the Southern Ocean Observing System. SCAR commissioned a report of the State of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Climate Systems. SCAR is also a co-sponsor of both Southern Ocean GLOBEC and a new body ICED (Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics). A detailed summary of this report is provided as a supplementary information paper CCAMLR-XXVI/BG/37.

• Information was taken from CCAMLR observer reports and interviews with fishing masters;
• The variation in reported conversion factors for similar reported products can be attributed to a number of reasons:.; o Differences in the method of processing the same products o Seasonal variation o Spatial variation o Krill water content o Reporting errors (recording percentage recovered instead of conversion factor)

• Uncertainty in reported Conversion Factors does not necessarily lead to uncertainty in total catch estimates as the majority of vessels interviewed made direct estimates of green weight catches; and,
• A need for closer monitoring of processing methods, calculation of green weight catches, and conversion factors where appropriate, this could be enhanced by greater observer coverage.

Catch uncertainty is a component of uncertainty that is not routinely considered by CCAMLR. However, given the currently reported variability in conversion factors for krill, a nominal reported catch of 600 000t could actually represent a catch in ‘green weight’ of 2.5 million tonnes. Quantifying the level of uncertainty in reported catches of krill would require information on product specific conversion factors (including the time-scale over which those conversion factors were produced) as well as the product composition of catches.

This paper describes French fishery targeting Patagonian Toothfish inside CCAMLR area, what are the data collected and how they are checked, a short description of prioritisation of observer’s task is given.