| Summary: | Current krill fisheries in the Antarctic is reviewed in the context of its direct anthropogenic influence on the ecosystem, but its effects have not been identified so far. Two stages in its development and management are identified. It is shown that the first stage of the Antarctic fish resources exploitation (1961-1982) covered the time span from the beginning of international fishing up to the creation of CCALMR. At the first stage, the USSR began extensive stock research studies (1961), trawl fishing, and Antarctic krill fisheries (1966-1973) in the Atlantic Antarctic and the Indian Ocean Antarctic. Starting from 1973, the vessels under the flags of Japan, Poland, Germany, the Republic of Korea, France, Chile, etc. joined the Soviet fishing. This stage is defined by the growth of unregulated and unrestricted fishing in the area, as flag states did not regulate fishing operations of their vessels. The highest trawl catches of marbled rockcod Notothenia rossii (400,000 tons in 1970) and Antarctic krill Euphausia superba (582,000 tons in 1982) were recorded during that period. From 1966 to 1982, 2.09 million tons of fish (notothens and white-blooded fish species) and 2.08 million tons of krill were totally caught in the Antarctic. It is noted that Antarctic fishing was developed simultaneously with whaling (1947-1987): about 1 million whale individuals were hunted in the area during this period. It is suggested that high-rate whaling was the most influential factor for the Antarctic ecosystem. Following the initiative of the states, participating in the Antarctic Treaty (1959) and concerned about anthropogenic influence on the Antarctic ecosystem, including rapid growth of krill catch, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (the CCALMR Convention) was developed in 1980. The international organisation named Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was created on its basis in 1982. The second stage, from 1982 up to present days (2015), is ...
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