Setting a Precautionary Catch Limit for Antarctic Krill

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Authors

Roger P. Hewitt | NOAA/Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, USA

Jon L. Watkins | British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

Mikio Naganobu | National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Shimizu, Japan

Pavel Tshernyshkov | AtlantNIRO, Kaliningrad, Russia

Andrew S. Brierley | Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland

David A. Demer | NOAA/Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, USA

Svetlana Kasatkina | AtlantNIRO, Kaliningrad, Russia

Yoshimi Takao | National Research Institute of Fisheries Engineering, Ibaraki, Japan

Cathy Goss | British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

Alexander Malyshko | AtlantNIRO, Kaliningrad, Russia

Mark A. Brandon | The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

So Kawaguchi | National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Shimizu, Japan

Volker Siegel | Institut für Seefischerei, Hamburg, Germany

Philip N. Trathan | British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

Jennifer H. Emery | NOAA/Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, USA

Inigo Everson | British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

Denzil G.M. Miller | Marine and Coastal Management, Roggebaai, South Africa

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Abstract

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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Full Article

4.28 MB pdf

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Citation

Hewitt, R.P., J.L. Watkins, M. Naganobu, P. Tshernyshkov, A.S. Brierley, D.A. Demer, S. Kasatkina, Y. Takao, C. Goss, A. Malyshko, M.A. Brandon, S. Kawaguchi, V. Siegel, P.N. Trathan, J.H. Emery, I. Everson, and D.G.M. Miller. 2002. Setting a precautionary catch limit for Antarctic krill. Oceanography 15(3):26–33, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2002.12.

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