South Africa and Japan made the next season’s (2017/18) research plan in Subarea 48.6 using the latest CCAMLR C2 and Observer data. We have used extracted data provided by CCAMLR secretariat on 10th May, 2017.
The estimated median stock size in research block 48.6_2, 48.6_3, and 48.6_4 was 5657.54, 5162.26, and 8211.25 tonnes, respectively, in Chapman method considering tags released in the last one years as effective for the biomass estimation, except for 48.6_4 with the last three years. The estimated median stock size in block 48.6_2, 48.6_3, and 48.6_4 was 801.17, 124.71, and 981.91 tonnes, respectively, in CPUE analogy method (reference area: RSR) using the relevant information of reference area (recent median CPUE, estimated biomass and updated area size) recommended in the WG-SAM-16/18 Rev. 1.
We propose to continue the current research operation in Subarea 48.6 for the next fishing season with the same survey design.