Progressing krill fishery management in Subarea 48.1 with spatial differences in data availability

We highlight spatial differences across Subarea 48.1 in the availability of data required to implement the revised krill fishery management approach. Currently the spatial overlap analysis (SOA) has been applied to approximately 50% of Subarea 48.1, which includes the majority of past fishing locations and which we call the SOA area. A catch limit has been proposed for the whole of 48.1 but it is important to ensure that the catch that is allocated to the SOA area is consistent with biomass estimates for that area.  Data shortages are particularly acute outside the SOA area but they also affect the western part of the SOA area. We suggest that different approaches could be used to set local catch limits at the scale of candidate management units, depending on current data availability, until appropriate data are available to support Subarea-wide implementation. We provide suggestions for how these catch limits might be calculated using a combination of the revised krill fishery management approach and the approaches which have previously been used in CCAMLR to specify Conservation Measures for the krill fishery.