Setting a precautionary catch limit for Antarctic krill

A revised precautionary catch limit for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Scotia Sea of 4 million tons was recently adopted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The limit was based on a total biomass of 44.3 million tons, as estimated from an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oceanography
Main Authors: Hewitt, R. P., Watkins, J. L., Naganobu, M., Tshernyshkov, P., Brierley, A. S., Demer, D. A., Kasatkina, S., Takao, Y., Goss, C., Malyshko, A., Brandon, M. A., Kawaguchi, S., Siegel, V., Trathan, P. N., Emery, J. H., Everson, I., Miller, D. G. M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: 2002
Subjects:
Antarctic
Scotia Sea
Southern Ocean
Antarc*
Antarctic Krill
Euphausia superba
Online Access:https://oro.open.ac.uk/17758/
https://oro.open.ac.uk/17758/1/15.3_hewitt_et_al.pdf
http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/15_3.html
https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2002.12
Description
Summary:A revised precautionary catch limit for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Scotia Sea of 4 million tons was recently adopted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The limit was based on a total biomass of 44.3 million tons, as estimated from an acoustic and net survey of krill across the Scotia Sea sector of the Southern Ocean, and a harvest rate of 9.1%, as determined from an analysis of the risks of exceeding defined conservation criteria. We caution, however, that before the fishery can expand to the 4-inillion-ton level it will be necessary to establish mechanisms to avoid concentration of fishing effort, particularly in proximity to colonies of land-breeding krill predators, and to consider the effects of krill immigrating into the region from multiple sources.

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