Long term trends in Patagonian toothfish populations in Subarea 48.3

Since 2018 the delegation of the Russian Federation has repeatedly challenged CCAMLR’s management approach to the Patagonian toothfish fishery in Subarea 48.3 (e.g. Delegation of the Russian Federation, 2021a,b; WG-FSA-2021/41, SC-CAMLR 40/15) and, since 2021/22, has blocked agreement on a Conservation Measure for that fishery (CCAMLR-40, paras 6.18-6.34).  The concerns of the Russian Federation focussed on three main areas (i) a putative decrease in the length of first maturity of male and female toothfish; (ii) a putative decrease in the average length of toothfish in the Subarea 48.3 fishery; (iii) the predominance of immature fish in toothfish catches in the Subarea 48.3 fishery.  Here we summarise two papers recently published in Deep Sea Research and Fisheries Research that address and refute these concerns.