In previous years we revealed that period 2006-2011 is characterized by the highest values of standardized CPUE indices in the Subarea 48.1 for the last 25 years. We continue to investigate krill fishery data for understanding reasons of this ‘high CPUE’ regime. The authors present the analysis of spatial - temporal variability of krill fishery based on CPUE trends, trawling duration, catch per haul, fishing efforts (hours fished) and vessel locations for traditional and continuous fishing methods. Our investigation shows how fishery operated by years and month in each SSMUs with special attention to differences between national fleets. It was shown also significant variability in fishing indices based on different fishing methods as well as between national fleets using traditional fishing method.
We obtained the additional evidence that ‘high CPUE’ regime’ in 2006-2011 is not associated with the changes in fishing methods but is result of the influence of changing environment. Impact of fishing methods on fleet locations was not revealed also.
Our opinion is that climate changes can become the reason for the changes in sea ice locations and krill abundance and distribution affecting fishery strategy and performance. The important evidence of above said is the СPUE regimes switching observed in long-term fishery.
We suggest that information on variability of krill fishable biomass distribution in connection to the fishery performance will promote important platform for developing feedback management procedures for krill fishery in Subarea 48.1 as well as in Area 48. The source of this information should be acoustic surveys and observations onboard krill fishing vessels.