multi-national plan for ecosystem monitoring; assessment and 

 avoidance of accidental and incidental catch of non-target 

 species; and elaboration of a system of observation and 

 inspection. The Scientific Committee concluded that several 

 fish stocks, particularly the Notothenia rossii stock in the 

 South Georgia area, had been severely depleted by overfishing 

 and that additional measures should be taken to protect and 

 permit recovery of the stocks. Most members of the Commis- 

 sion, including the United States, took the position that 

 area closures or enforceable catch limits were required to 

 permit recovery of some depleted stocks. Others, particu- 

 larly the Soviet Union, took the position that there had not 

 yet been sufficient time to detect the effects of net 

 regulations and prohibitions on directed fishing adopted at 

 the 1985 meeting, and were not convinced that more restric- 

 tive measures either were necessary or justified. The 

 Commission, which must make decisions by consensus, continued 

 existing conservation measures (see the previous Annual 

 Report) , adopted several additional measures including a 

 prohibition on directed fisheries for N. rossii in the 

 vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula, and agreed that at its 

 next meeting it would consider and, as necessary, fix catch 

 limits for the South Georgia area to become effective for the 

 1987/1988 fishing season. 



Information provided during the September 1986 meetings 

 indicate that catches of Antarctic krill, which had declined 

 from a high of about 528,000 metric tons in the 1981/1982 

 fishing season to about 128,000 tons in the 1983/1984 fishing 

 season, have increased in the past two years due at least in 

 part to improved success in preparing peeled krill products. 

 Most of the increase, as indicated in the following table, 

 has been in the reported Soviet catch, which has doubled in 

 each of the past two years. 



Antarctic Krill Catches 

 (in metric tons) 



*The figures for 1986 are preliminary. 



22 



