ABSTRACT
Prior to the 2009/10 fishing season, the Secretariat allocated starting positions for research hauls in the exploratory fisheries in Subareas 48.6 and 58.4 (except on BANZARE Bank were positions were specified in Conservation Measure 41-07). For each of the 12 notifying vessels, up to 8 starting positions were provided for each stratum in each SSRU notified, and vessels were required to complete 5 research hauls in each stratum (total of 10 research hauls per SSRU). In all, 1133 starting positions were allocated for 84 vessel-SSRU combinations. As of June 2010, three vessels had fished in these exploratory fisheries in 2009/10, and had deployed a total of 129 research hauls in accordance with the conservation measures and allocated positions. Overall the vessels adhered to the research fishing protocol. Three types of difficulties and/or limitations were evident :
a) Sea-ice along the Antarctic coastline had prevented some vessels from reaching allocated positions in the continental SSRUs (e.g. 486D, 5841C and 5841G); however, the vessels were able to deploy research hauls in alternative positions determined by vessels.
b) The deployment of research hauls in alternative positions determined by vessels had resulted in some hauls being set in depths greater than 2500 m.
C) Some vessels did not achieve the required 5 hauls per stratum.