Stakeholders Meeting of the Ross Sea MPA, Fisheries Group

MARS-3201-001 MARINE CONSERVATION ECOLOGY

Dana Fellerman, Drew DAscoli, Kelsey Everett, Madison Brown, Pat Williams
April 18th 2017

The Ross Sea has always been a desolate and rich marine community, remaining for the
most part, untouched by man. Only within recent years, relatively speaking, has this area became
subject to anthropogenic influences. The history of the Ross Sea fishery began in 1996 during a
New Zealand exploratory expedition, where they discovered an abundance of toothfish. This lead
to the development and regulation of this newly found socio-economic resource. The Ross Sea
is currently the primary fishing grounds for approximately fifteen to 26 registered vessels hailing
from multiple different countries.
The question that has risen with the development of this fishery is whether or not it can
be exploited for its socio-economic benefits, in a manner that is sustainable and produces little to
no impact on the ecosystem. Therefore, the primary conflict is essentially Economic vs
Environmental with its representatives being the fishing companies and the scientists
respectively. This then leaves the foreign officials and the managers to help mitigate the interests
of the other two parties. Ultimately, the goal of this meeting is to create a fishery that can be
sustainably and sufficiently harvested with minimal impact on the surrounding environment.
As a part of fisheries with a main focus on commercial interests, our goals are focused on
balancing our current fishing activities in a sustainable manner to appease other stakeholders
involved in order for us to continue fishing to make a profit. We have limited access to fishing
areas as it is. With increased restrictions, such as more no-take zones, heavier gear regulations,
and reduced fishing periods throughout the year, we would not be able to provide for ourselves
and our families due to the reduced income. Equipment is expensive as is, requiring us to
upgrade our techniques without financial assistance is simply unfair. A career in fishing is not a
bountiful one, we make enough to get by. If we were offered assistance to make the required
equipment more affordable or accessible, we would be able to consider upgrading our fishing
methods.
In addition to the money we lose to required expenses, such as equipment and fuel, we
are now faced with the concern of losing available fishing areas as well. When it comes to
making a profit, more fish means we can make more money. If we are forced to shift our practice
to new areas that may not have the same available fish or if our known fishing areas are
decreased in size, we have a greater chance of losing profit. This practice is what we depend on
for our livelihood. It is not fair to us as a community to have our needs and importance trumped
by that of a fish that is showing no significant evidence of decline.
According to the coalition of legal toothfish operators (COLTO), the Ross Sea Antarctic
Toothfish Fishery has been certified as sustainable according to the Marine Stewardship Council
as of 2010 (COLTO, 2017). Furthermore, a study done by a group of marine scientists from the
National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (NIWA) in New Zealand found that in 2012 the
Antarctic Toothfish population showed no significant decline. The study was done by surveying
59 random locations using long-lines. Each long-line was comprised of 4,600 hooks and were set
for a 24 hour time period in a survey area of 30,000 square kilometers. From this study overall,
they found no significant decrease in the Toothfish population and therefore, no reason to
increase fishing restrictions (NIWA, 2012).
There are three other major stakeholders that have an input to the proposed Ross Sea
MPA: scientists, managers, and foreign officials, each with their own interests and concerns. For
instance, scientists are interested in the conservation measure of the Ross Sea. Their focus will
be to ensure healthy and stable populations of all marine organisms, especially those impacted by
us as fishermen. Some of their main interests will be with tagging and acquiring accurate
information for estimates of marine populations, such as the antarctic toothfish. In addition, they
have an interest in our fisheries in regards to harvest amounts and the number of vessels that are
in and around the Ross Sea MPA. Scientists will most likely want to place regulations on our
fishing vessels to reduce the impact on marine organisms and habitats. Some of the restrictions
that they might impose are mesh size regulations and bycatch reduction devices (BRDs).
The foreign officials, which include the United States, South America, Japan and
Australia, have a major weigh in for the Ross Sea MPA. Since there is an individual
representative from each country, each will have their own opinion for the MPA. For instance,
the foreign official from Japan will most likely be interested in whaling while Australia will be
more interested in trading/selling of antarctic toothfish. Overall, the foreign officials want what
is best for their country, being representatives of their people. Each will be interested in how the
trading of resources, such as krill, will be impacted by the Ross Sea MPA. They rely heavily on
the fisheries for their goods so their primary concerns will be the managers.
Moreover, the managers have a very important stake for the Ross Sea MPA site to
balance the needs of each stakeholder group. They will be the ones to implement these
regulations on our fishery operations within the Ross Sea. Their other primary concern is
weighing the costs and benefits of each group's argument and deciding whos being more
directly impacted by this proposal. We are the most impacted since this MPA will inevitably
affect our livelihoods and income. Therefore managers should be most interested in our
proposals and opinions about the Ross Sea MPA. Also, managers will be interested in the
scientists input on what they think should be protected/conserved through data analysis.
Managers will want to ensure all policies that are made within the Ross Sea MPA site are
upheld by all fisheries involved, as well. In order to do this effectively MCS (Monitoring Control
and Surveillance) is to be enforced and followed by all fishery operations in the Ross Sea MPA.
According to the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department MCS requires continuous
monitoring and measurement of fishing efforts and regulations that define how a resource is
obtained. A dynamic variety of observations is needed to ensure regulatory policies are being
enacted by all involved. MCS patrol teams, lead by a fisheries officer, are in charge of surveying
the given area they are assigned and board vessels if they believe the vessel has broken a
regulation. If a vessel is found to have violated regulations, traditional repercussions include
physically arresting the violators while securing vessels for identification and evidence.
Due to how costly these arrests are they do not happen often, and the use of no force
surveillance techniques is preferred. It is important to still secure evidence in the extreme case of
illegal fishing or poaching of animals within the MPA, though. Regarding MSC these no force
techniques include the use of observers, up to date licenses, agreements States make to take
responsibility for their citizens actions and radar control is mostly preferred. The technology
involved with radar control allows for the monitoring of vessel locations in the given area.
Further technology advances involving a Radar Cross Section (RCS) allows for size
measurements of an object. As a rule, the larger an object, the stronger its radar reflection and
thus the greater its RCS. In order to assist in this radar control, all vessels will be fitted with an
Automatic Location Communicator (ALC) approved under Regulation 9D of the Fisheries
Management Regulations 1992. As such, the monitoring device will be placed in a sealed unit
that will protect a mechanism to indicate if the unit has been accessed or tampered with. These
are just some methods managers can use to ensure that fisheries are following the regulations set
into place in exchange for being allowed to fish within the MPA.
One major point that our group has considered is the cost of running a shipping vessel.
Some of these costs include ship maintenance and crew life support and payment, along with the
salaries of the one or two scientific observers onboard vessels. This data was collected by
tracking a newly deployed fishing vessel that has recently been registered by CCAMLR in the
past year. According to an article published by Undercurrent News, the fishing company Sea
Lord, one of the Ross seas commercial fishing companies, purchased a 57 meter long liner vessel
for approximately 30-40 million dollars. The next cost to consider was how much it would be
required to run the fishing operations. By extrapolating data from a NOAA study on fishing
operation costs, we were able to estimate that the cost to run a vessel seems to be within 200 to
500 thousand dollars. This estimate includes maintenance, repairs, upgrades, business, and
operations (26$thousand in fuel per trip). Furthermore, the average commercial fisherman earns
a median salary of $27,340 per year, while a scientific observer makes between $3,000-$6,000 a
month. Additionally, there are around 26 crew members and 2 observers on each vessel, taking
into account the salaries for both, we can see just how expensive running a fishing operation can
be. Stressing these high expenses will help us rationalizes our demands for available fishing
grounds in the hopes to maintain this expensive industry in the ross sea.
Due to the lack of data in the Ross Sea on multiple species and environmental data, we
are willing to work with the scientists. Instead of the scientists purchasing and sending out their
own vessels and paying scientists to go out for research purposes, we propose for them to work
with us, as fisherman with our own vessels that are already out there and are familiar with the all
aspect of the environment and boating conditions. This will minimize boat disturbance to the
marine life by working with the vessels and people that are already there instead of paying more
money and putting more vessels in the water. Provided (at least) one scientist or scientific
observer per fishing vessel to do research on their own agenda they can also track and monitor
the actions of the fishermen if they are concerned with our strategies and impact on the Ross Sea
and native species. Furthermore, we will outfit all registered fishing vessels with the ALC which
will constantly report all of their movement. We will provide pay, or a portion of the pay, to the
scientists on our vessels. As a trade-off, we would like access to 8% of the Ross Sea for fisheries
and commercial purposes. That will allow us a larger catch, earning more money to support not
only our families, but also profit to pay the scientists aboard our vessels. Additionally, in regards
to toothfish, we will propose a slot based catch size that will exclude all the large individuals and
small individuals from harvest. These excluded individuals will, in turn, be subjected to tagging
and other forms of scientific survey. Finally, if, and only if, the other groups find the effects of
climate change to be of major concern, then we will offer to outfit boats with cleaner
technologies to appease these demands in the hope that our request for more fishing grounds will
be met.