Update on the analysis of fish by-catch in the krill fishery using data from the CCAMLR Scheme of Scientific Observation

Data on fish bycatch in the krill fishery has been collected as part of the CCAMLR SISO from a total of 9303 hauls collected on 60 cruise involving 18 different vessels over the period 2010-2014. This paper examines the frequency of occurrence, proportion by mass and length-frequency distribution of the fish taxa reported. The frequency of occurrence of fish for each vessel ranged from 0.1 to 0.98 and there were 14 taxa for which the frequency of occurrence was >1% in any subarea (of which 7 were Channichthids). The modal size class of the fish taxa for which >100 length measurements were available all had a modal size of <10cm. Extrapolation of the mass of fish in the bycatch data would indicate that a 200 000 t krill catch might be expected to contain of the order of 40t of C. gunnari and 38t of L. larseni, albeit with large confidence intervals around these estiamtes.