Human Impacts on Antarctica and Threats to the Environment
- Fishing

The Impact of Fisheries

Fishing is now the only large-scale resource exploitation that is going on in Antarctica. Most other world fisheries have been over exploited even where controls are in place to prevent this and this has to be a concern for Antarctic fisheries too.

The potential problems are:

Over fishing of a particular target species.

Effects on other species that depend on the target species as a food resource or are eaten by the target species.

Killing of other fish, vertebrate or invertebrate species accidentally caught alongside the target species, the so called "by-catch".

Destruction of habitat by fishing gear

The regulation of Antarctic fisheries is carried out by The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources - CCAMLR. This came into force in 1982, as part of the Antarctic Treaty System.

The CCAMLR was established chiefly as a result of concerns that an increasing krill catches in the Southern Ocean could have serious effects on the population of krill. Krill is a major and vital part of the Antarctic food web and so disturbances to populations could have major and far-reaching effects on the whole ecosystem.

The protection of fisheries is different to other controls in Antarctica in that the target is that of a sustainable exploitation rather than of complete protection. As fisheries protection goes, there is a difference in that not only is the particular target species considered, but the effect of fishing that species on other dependent or associated species is also taken into consideration too. Any fishing boats are required to report their catches so that the stock taken can be assessed.

The initial purpose of regulating the krill fishery was fairly soon not so important due to a slow down in the catch of krill. This is expected soon to increase however and the 1999 catch of 100,000 tonnes could double. The annual catch precautionary catch limit of krill set by CCAMLR is of 2,725,000 tonnes.

Antarctic fisheries have already been damaged. In the late 1960's the Soviet Union targeted marbled notothenid and icefish around South Georgia. 400,000 tonnes was taken in the in 1969-70 season followed by a rapid decline from which the stocks have still to recover fully.

Photo: Alexander Colhoun - National Science Foundation

More recently the cause for concern has been the Patagonian Toothfish, Dissostichus eleginoides. This fish represents something of a marketing coup, it is not an attractive looking fish at all, the original name is not terribly appealing but it makes for excellent eating.

Up-market restaurants have re-labelled the fish the "Chilean Sea Bass" and it is generally not presented whole, but filleted or otherwise processed. The result has been that there is a great rise in popularity and a demand that far exceeds the set quotas. As it commands a premium price in restaurants, then there are plenty of more than willing unscrupulous fishermen who are prepared to illegally fish for it. It is generally caught in the sub Antarctic.

The illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing of the Patagonian toothfish is of concern because it has the potential to undermine attempts to manage the stock as a sustainable resource. management is also made difficult as it is traded under different names in different places, Bacalao de profundidad in Chile, Butterfish in Mauritius, Chilean Sea Bass in the USA and Canada and Mero in Japan.

Illegal fishing is further cause for concern as the types of people it attracts are generally not concerned about the use of questionable or illegal techniques that can cause the death of non-target species as by-catch. Albatrosses in particular are under threat as they are taken inadvertently by long-line fishing as the birds swoop down to catch the bait being hooked and then are drowned.

US Department of State - Chilean Sea Bass

National Geographic Chilean Sea Bass

Environmental action - Patagonian Toothfish

Wandering Albatross and long-lining