Australia has undertaken an analysis of information relating to the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing vessel (FV) Kunlun. The vessel was boarded on 26 February 2015 outside the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources Area (CCAMLR Area) in order to verify its right to fly its flag, pursuant to Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Information obtained during the boarding has informed this analysis.
This analysis is provided to support CCAMLR members in their efforts to investigate or undertake other enforcement action in relation to CCAMLR Non-Contracting Party (NCP) IUU vessels.
Based on our analysis, Australia concludes that:
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Combined international efforts effectively shortened the FV Kunlun’s fishing campaign in the Convention Area in 2014-15
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The majority of fishing was undertaken off the Antarctic coast not far from Australia’s Mawson Research Station in Statistical Division 58.4.2 (SSRU D) between 26 – 31 January 2015
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The average Dissostichus spp greenweight catch rate per gillnet was approximately 4,038kgs
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The vessel spent three weeks fishing for a total catch of 181 tonnes (processed weight from the verified factory production records) that has an estimated value of $USD3.67 million
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On average, demersal gillnets used in 2014-15 fishing season were approximately 4.3 nautical miles in length and took approximately half an hour to set, with multiple sets undertaken per day
The vessel’s catch and effort data did not match the verified factory production records. As a result, it is more likely that the data obtained by the Australian authorities does not represent the FV Kunlun’s daily fishing logbook but is a sample of the fishing activity of three separate vessels, FV Yongding (Zemour 1), FV Kunlun and FV Songhua (Zemour 2).