At CCAMLR-41 (paragraph 4.94), the Commission recommended reinitiating discussions in the established intersessional e-group ‘Unidentified fishing gear in the Convention Area’ on the mechanisms to reduce gear loss through improved marking techniques. Members will also recall that in 2018 the Commission agreed that the Secretariat would lead intersessional work to develop guidelines for the retrieval of unidentified fishing gear and catch. The Secretariat proposes that this work also continues in the ‘Unidentified fishing gear in the Convention Area’ e-group.

The Secretariat has now reinitiated this e-group and it can be accessed on our e-groups web page. The Secretariat has separated discussions into two topics to allow a streamlined focus for each topic:

• Unidentified gear retrieval guidelines
• Gear marking.

The Secretariat welcomes any offers to co-lead work to progress these topics.

The goal of this work is to contribute to a paper outlining technical guidelines for fishing vessels encountering unidentified fishing gear and recommendations on the marking of fishing gear to enhance traceability of gear found in the Convention Area, which will be presented to CCAMLR-42. 

Initial contributions are requested by 17 April 2023.