The seminar was attended by 47 specialists from 16 CCAMLR member countries (Australia, Great Britain, Chile, China, Ukraine, Russian Federation, France, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, USA, EU, South Africa) and the CCAMLR Secretariat. The Russian delegation included: Svetlana Kasatkina, Head of the AtlantNIRO Department, representative of the Russian Federation in the Scientific Committee of the CCAMLR; Oleg Krasnoborodko, Head of the AtlantNIRO Laboratory; Alexander Sytov, Chief Specialist of VNIRO.
The purpose of the seminar was to discuss a wide range of issues related to the definition and practical use of conversion coefficients (hereinafter CF) of the products of processing of toothfish on longline vessels in the value of green or raw catch weight (weight of unprocessed toothfish) in the fishery in the Convention area. For any particular catch, the specified raw weight of the toothfish will be the sum of all the weights of processed products (by processing code) multiplied by the corresponding CF for each processing code. The discussion was based on materials prepared by the Secretariat on the basis of a review and analysis of the reporting on the toothfish fishery submitted by CCAMLR member countries.
Conversion coefficients (CF) of toothfish production into catch value serve as a key parameter in assessing the biomass of caught toothfish (Dissostichus sp.) in the Convention area. Currently, the issues of determining CF coefficients are presented in the Manual of the scientific observer at the longline fishery of the CCAMLR. The Scientific Committee and the CCAMLR Commission have an acute lack of unified procedures for data collection and CF calculations, and how longline fishing vessels then use these conversion factors when determining the green weight and generating reports on the toothfish fishery (Form C2) submitted by flag States to the CCAMLR Secretariat.
Based on the results of the WS-CF-2022 workshop, the CCAMLR Secretariat and working groups will develop guidelines on procedures for assessing the weight of fangfish caught using CF. The revised C2 forms will be implemented in 2023 and will allow the Secretariat to reliably determine the green weight of the toothfish from the reported fishing data in the areas of the convention zone.
The information prepared based on the materials of the WS-CF-2022 seminar will be presented at the industry seminar held by Rosrybolovstvo on the basis of the Atlantic branch of the VNIRO Federal State Budgetary Institution (AtlantNIRO) "Training of international and national scientific observers and inspectors to work in the CCAMLR Convention Area" (August 2022, Kaliningrad).
VNIRO Press Service