Antarctic krill fisheries management: "What's next?"

The move from Stage 1 to 2 in feedback management (FBM) for the Antarctic krill fishery is of critical importance to CCAMLR. Useful proposals at WG-EMM-16 this year highlighted strategies that could be used to do this, and ASOC encourages CCAMLR to develop a plan for discussion of these proposals and to improve the collection of data needed to implement them. In particular, the enhancement of data collection by fishing operators and from CEMP will be critical to progressing FBM. Another outstanding need is the ability to quantify krill flux, a factor that creates considerable uncertainty for management of the fishery. Finally, CCAMLR should re-examine the data sampling program for the krill observer program and make changes as necessary to improve the quality of data collected. In general, CCAMLR should give high priority to obtaining the data required for FBM and agreeing a strategy for putting FBM into practice.