Streamlining the work of the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (SC-CAMLR)

In recent years, the Scientific Committee has been dealing with a great diversity of important issues for which the Commission was expecting advice. The current structure of the Working Groups has struggled to address these issues efficiently, leading to expanded time taken on intersessional meetings and a large diversity of important issues.  A number of important issues are not being addressed at present.  In our view, this stems from constraints on the way SC-CAMLR does work. In this paper, we describe these constraints and combine thoughts given to the CCAMLR Symposium in May 2015 on how these issues may be resolved.  In particular, we propose some options for re-organising the work and structure of the Scientific Committee.  These options include having three meeting periods timetabled through the year: a two week period for workshops, a three week period for the Scientific Committee and its working groups and maybe workshops in mid-year, and a short meeting of the Scientific Committee just prior to the annual Commission meeting.  We also suggest a co-ordinating group (bureau) be established in the Scientific Committee, comprising the Chair and Vice-Chairs of the SC and the Convenors of Standing Working Groups (supported by the Secretariat) to co-ordinate the business of the meeting and to stimulate and guide inter-sessional activities.  We provide suggestions for the working groups as well as for improving reports of these meetings.