In balancing the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources and their rational use, the Commission has been in the forefront of organisations in the development of an ecosystem approach to managing such resources.

 It has also assumed prominence in the development of management approaches which apply an element of precaution to take account of uncertainty in the knowledge required for management.

It also adopts measures aimed at minimising any potential impact that fishing activities may exert on non-target species.

The Commission follows a regulatory framework to manage each fishery via which it implements catch limits and/or other measures.

The framework also attempts to document the potential impact of fishing on the harvested resource and other elements of the ecosystem.

The enforcement of management measures is generally the responsibility of individual Members, but the Commission, through various publications, aims to encourage compliance with measures.

In recent years, the growing incidence of IUU fishing for the valuable Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) has undermined CCAMLR’s conservation aims and has become a serious concern.

The Commission has developed measures to deal with this problem as a matter of urgency (see Monitoring, Control and Surveillance).