Preliminary reports on abundance and biological information on toothfish in Divisions 58.4.4a and 58.4.4b by Shinsei Maru No. 3 in the 2009/10 season

A survey was conducted in order to collect information for the stock status and various biological information on toothfish in Division 58.4.4a & b (Ob Lena Bank) by using a commercial bottom longline vessel, Shinsei Maru No. 3, from April 30 to June 20. The survey was undertaken according to the decision in the 28th CCAMLR Meeting of the Commission (28th CCAMLR report paragraph 4.43). This report described the results preliminarily during the survey in four SSRUs of Ob Lena Bank. The catch amounted the total allowable catch of 60 tonnes in 94 longline sets, which corresponded to 83 % to the total allocated fishable 113 sets. D. eleginoides contributed 80.1 % in numerical number and 96.1 % in weight to the total samples in SSRUs. Mean CPUEs of D. eleginoides for 71 hauls where only Trot line system was adopted were 13.1 indiv. / 1,000 hooks in number and 138.9 kg / 1,000 hooks in weight. These values were larger than mean CPUEs of 11.0 indiv. / 1,000 hooks and 108.0 kg / 1,000 hooks in the same Division in the 2007/08 season. D. eleginoides caught showed a broad polymodal composition for each SSRU, but the proportion of smaller fish caught in eastern SSRUs tended to be lower than that caught in the western SSRUs, as observed in the previous 2007/08 survey.