Results from the reduced groundfish survey conducted in CCAMLR Subarea 48.3 in January 2012

A reduced (three day) groundfish survey took place at Shag Rocks on the FV New Polar between the 26-28th January 2012. This survey was not intended to be a full biomass survey so only 20 random hauls were completed around Shag Rocks with 3 additional opportunistic sites at South Georgia. Reasonable catches of Patagonian toothfish were found around Shag Rocks (greater than in 2009 and 2010), with three size cohorts of fish identified including evidence of a new cohort of 2+ age fish (29-39cm). Catch-weighted length frequencies of mackerel icefish indicated that 2+ and 3+ sized fish dominated at Shag Rocks and Euphausiidae was the dominant prey item in the mackerel icefish diet. Strong acoustic marks, some of which may be attributable to icefish, were observed in the water column, and in only 23 hauls 15.2 tonnes of mackerel icefish were caught and following the survey mackerel icefish were caught commercially.