Krill fishery management in Area 48 – options for spatial distribution of catches

Following the lapse of CM51-07, which divided the 620,000-tonne krill trigger level (para 3 of CM 51-01) between four subareas (48.1-48.4), there is an urgent need to establish a replacement conservation measure to prevent the concentration of krill catches.  Whilst the UK is keen to see full implementation of a krill fisheries management approach (KFMA), harmonised with marine protected areas in the Antarctic Peninsula region, we recognise that there are still issues to address.  In this paper, we summarise the current situation and, for the scenario that it is not possible to adopt such a harmonised approach, propose two options for an interim measure to spread fishing effort and catches.