The fourth and fifth Ad Hoc Meeting on Management of Demersal Fisheries Resources of the Southern Indian Ocean, were held in Kemeeldrift East, South Africa, from 12 to 19 February 2006, and Albion, Petite Riviere, Mauritius, 25-28 April 2006. The meetings (a) reviewed options for specification of benthic protected areas (BPAs) in the southern Indian Ocean and (b) outlined a programme of commercially-executed fisheries stock assessment activities to be undertaken during the winter fishing season in the southern Indian Ocean. These included a programme of data collection and commercial-vessel acoustic resource assessment programmes.