European Union – Measurement of capacity in CCAMLR exploratory fisheries in Subareas 88.1 and 88.2

The longline fishery for toothfish in the Ross Sea currently operates as an Olympic fishery. The number of vessels operating in the fishery has progressively increased in recent years yet overall catch limits have remained relatively stable and as a consequence the fishing opportunities for individual vessels have reduced. This report investigates recent trends in the development of the Ross Sea toothfish fishery with specific focus on capacity related issues using information derived from the CCAMLR C2 catch and effort data. Managers need to assess and monitor capacity and capacity utilisation in a fishery in order to be aware of the pressures within the fishery as well as the trends and changes that are impacted by management measures. There is therefore a requirement for the routine production of standard metrics of capacity and capacity utilisation that can be used to monitor trends in the fishery. Such metrics could be routinely produced by the CCAMLR secretariat using the CCAMLR C2 data.