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    IMPROVEMENT OF KRILL FISHING NOTIFICATION ACCURACY THROUGH NOTIFICATION FEES

    Demander un document de réunion
    Numéro du document:
    CCAMLR-XXIX/34
    Auteur(s):
    Delegation of the USA
    Résumé

    Improvement of krill fishing notification accuracy through notification fees

    Delegation of the United States

    The Commission adopted notification procedures for krill fishing in 2005. These procedures

    were intended to improve the Scientific Committee’s ability to provide advice to the

    Commission on krill fishing for the coming season. However, grossly inaccurate estimations

    of krill catch provided in Members’ notifications have hampered the Scientific Committee’s

    ability to properly estimate the seasonal krill catch and to provide robust scientific advice.

    Instead, the Scientific Committee’s scarce and valuable time is spent on analyses that are of

    limited use due to their inherent inaccuracies. The Scientific Committee has expressed

    concern, and the Commission has discussed several times, the lack of accuracy of the

    notifications.

    The Commission has also noted that the Secretariat incurs an administrative cost when it

    processes krill fishing notifications, including notifications from vessels that end up not

    fishing. These administrative steps and costs are no different from the more familiar

    expenses incurred in processing notifications for Dissostichus spp. fisheries. The

    Dissostichus spp. notification processing fees are necessary to maintain a level budget for the

    Commission without rising operational and administrative costs, an issue of much concern to

    all Commission Members. Not surprisingly, the CCAMLR Performance Review Panel also

    considered the need for cost-recovery for CCAMLR’s administrative costs beyond the

    Dissostichus spp. fishery: “7.1.1.2 2. ... develop a cost-recovery policy which would be

    applied to all commercial fishing operations...”

    At CCAMLR’s 2009 Annual Meeting, the SCIC considered a proposal to address cost

    recovery for processing krill fishing notifications. The Members considered a variety of

    options including elements that would restrict fishing for those vessels that notified but did

    not ultimately fish, changes to the Member contribution formula, and a fee system associated

    with notifications. In the course of discussions, it was noted that the Secretariat recoups its

    costs for processing Dissostichus spp. fishery notifications and that the cost would be

    approximately the same to process each krill fishing notification. While the SCIC was unable

    to reach agreement on how best to recover the Secretariat’s costs for processing krill fishing

    notifications, the discussions generally revealed that whatever method is applied, the

    CCAMLR Secretariat’s funds were becoming increasingly scarce and that they would benefit

    from some sort of compensatory regime. The discussion did not lead to an agreement on how

    to address the cost recovery idea, and the issue was left open for discussion in 2010.