The Second Ad Hoc Meeting on Management of Deepwater Fisheries Resources of the Southern Indian Ocean was organized and hosted by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry - Australia with the technical cooperation of FAO. It was held in Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia, from 20 to 22 May 2002. The meeting reviewed the status of information available relating to these fisheries and the events in their recent development. The meeting noted the importance of securing the operations data from companies, particularly those that no longer wished to operate in the study area. It was observed that the level of fishing effort in the study area was declining as catch rates fell. Attempts to collate catch data were inhibited by the small number of vessels that had been operating in the study area so that issues of national confidentiality requirements became a constraint. The meeting reviewed various models to relate resource abundance to seabed features and concerns were noted about the cost of management in the regions where sustainable yields from the various stocks would be notably low. Progress was achieved in establishing statistical reporting areas, which were based on bathymetric features, though in reviewing the appropriateness of management areas it was recognized that much of the information needed to determine such areas does not exist. The meeting noted that there is no active fisheries management in the study area, and in discussions regarding the management of other deepwater fisheries, their rapid depletion and commercial extirpation raised concerns for the study area. It was agreed that there is an urgent need to introduce effective management measures to prevent deepwater demersal fisheries in the Southern Indian Ocean suffering the same fate.
ISBN 92-5-104810-X ISSN 0429-9337
TR/M/Y3992E/1/9.02/1100
