-35- 



3. Fish 



Total reported catch in FAO statistical areas for the 

 southern ocean (areas 48, 58, and 88) has been zero in 

 recent years. However South Georgia and Kerguelen, known 

 to be heavily fished, are included in reporting areas to 

 the north (41 and 51) , Only southern poutassou and Patagonian 

 hake are reported as separate species in FAO Yearbook of 

 Fishery Statistics. 



It is probable that a large part of the catch of southern 

 poutassou by the USSR in area 51 was taken in the Scotia Sea. 

 Vessels of the USSR have fished near South Georgia and off 

 Kerguelen (estimated catch 120,000 tons during the 1971-72 

 season). Principal species caught are Notothenia rossi , N. 

 squamif rons , Channichthys rhinoceratus , and Champsocephalus 

 gunnari (Appendix G. Everson, 1977) . 



Exploratory fishing has been done by West Germany, Japan, 

 and Poland. 



Catches in area 41 which includes South Georgia built 

 rapidly to 400,000 tons and then declined rapidly to a few 

 thousand tons. Decline in total catch was due in part to a 

 great reduction in catch rate (Everson, 1977) . Thus some 

 fish stocks may already have been overexploited. 



4. Krill 



Because of their great abundance and because of the de- 

 cline in their major predators, baleen whales, krill have 

 been receiving increasing international interest as a poten- 

 tially harvestable resource in recent years. Exploratory fish- 

 ing for krill has been carried out by the USSR, Japan, Chile, 

 West Germany, Poland, Norway, Taiwan, East Germany, Spain, 

 and Korea (Appendix F, Everson, 1977; Tetra Tech, 1978) . 



The most recent catch statistics available for krill (1974) 

 indicate a total catch of 20-40,000 tons. The estimate of an 

 average take of 200,000 tons per season in recent years 

 (McWhinnie, 1974) represents about 0.3 - 1% of estimated stand- 

 ing stock and about 0.3 - 0.8% of estimated annual production. 



Krill harvesting research has been carried out in the 

 summer months, December though March, and has been concentrated 

 in the Weddell, Scotia, and Ross Seas, and the East Wind Drift. 

 Harvestable densities have been encountered most frequently 

 around South Georgia, the South Orkney Islands, the South 

 Shetland Islands, and the South Sandwich Islands (Tetra Tech, 1978) 



