Patagonian Toothfish - Management

Management

Commercial fishing of toothfish is managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) inside the CCAMLR Convention Area which spans the Antarctic continent and waters between 45°S and 60°S. Some fisheries inside territorial waters within the Convention Area (e.g. Crozet Island, Prince Edwards and Marion Islands) are managed separately by countries with territorial waters taking CCAMLR management practices into account. Toothfish fisheries outside the CCAMLR Convention Area in the coastal waters of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are managed by the relevant coastal state. However, these fisheries are still subject to the CCAMLR Catch Documentation Scheme (CDS) which tracks the trade of toothfish from the point of unloading to the point of final consumption.

In the legal toothfish fisheries managed by CCAMLR and countries with territorial waters, the most common method is fishing by longlines (where a long ‘mainline’ is set in the water, with many baited hooks coming off that line). There is a small amount of toothfish caught by trawling (where a net is towed behind the boat for short periods of time). For all methods of legal fishing for toothfish, there are minimal interactions with seabirds these days. This is a result of requirements for legal operators to use mitigation devices or approaches such as:

• Seasonal fishery closures during the summer months due to increase in seabird abundance for chick rearing;
• No setting of hooks during the daytime;
• No fishing without having a bird-scaring line trailing out the back of the boat to keep birds away from the hooks;
• Bird Exclusion Devices (BED) or 'brickle curtain' to be used on 100% of hauls;
• Boats must use weighted longlines so that the baits and hooks sink before the birds can grab them;
• Limitations on release of offal overboard at the same time as the setting or hauling of lines (to avoid attracting seabirds when they may otherwise be vulnerable to the baits and hooks).

In 2011 the CCAMLR Scientific Committee Chair, David Agnew, was quoted as saying “levels of seabird mortality are negligible in most areas”, with the one region yet to achieve these ‘near zero’ results, having reduced seabird interactions by over 98% from their peak levels, and have continued to improve each year.

Trawling generally catches toothfish in the smaller size range, which requires calculations to be made at the annual stock assessment meetings of CCAMLR to take these catches of smaller sized fish into account, and lowers the overall available catch of toothfish by trawl. CCAMLR has prohibited all trawl fishing in high seas waters and exploratory fisheries.