S.Georgia : South Georgia - Fishing and Shipping News
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 10.10.2007 (Article Archived on 24.10.2007)
The last of the krill trawlers finished fishing at the beginning of the month, leaving just one icefish trawler fishing in the South Georgia Maritime Zone (SGMZ).
Fishing and Shipping News
The last of the krill trawlers finished fishing at the beginning of the month, leaving just one icefish trawler fishing in the South Georgia Maritime Zone (SGMZ).
The toothfish season finished at the end of August, so the last Long-liners all made their way to Stanley, Falklands, to have their catches verified. All of the licensed vessels in the South Georgia fishery are required to have an end of season catch verification inspection, and those vessels which belong to the Marine Stewardship Council Group Scheme also have chain of custody inspections, to enable them to market their catch as coming from a certified sustainable fishery. It was impressive to see five SG long-liners fill all the available berths at the dock in Stanley early this month.
A key element of the stock assessment for the South Georgia Toothfish fishery is the tag and recapture programme. Each vessel has an Observer aboard, and part of their work is to tag Toothfish and return them to the sea – aiming to tag and return three fish for every two tonnes caught.
This season the ten Observers tagged over 5,000 fish in the SGMZ, and 583 tagged fish were recaught. The tagging programme has been running for a number of years, so the recaptured fish will have been tagged over a number of years. The number of tagged fish recaptured provides vital information for assessing stock levels, and helps understanding of the fishes’ movements within the zone and their growth rate.
To encourage fishermen to look out for the tags, they are given ten dollars per tagged fish they deliver to the Observer. Additionally, each finder goes into the annual prize draw for $1000. The 2006 season's winner of the prize draw was Feliti Kami from Tonga, a fisherman on the New Zealand flagged longliner “San Aspiring”. Falkland Island First Secretary, Paul Martinez, took great pleasure in presenting Feliti with his prize money and thanked him on behalf of South Georgia Government for his diligence.
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