OSLO, Norway—Results from a krill-monitoring survey conducted on Aker BioMarine’s vessel by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research have been released describing the data collection procedure and presenting raw data and preliminary findings. The survey is intended to help build a time series of krill abundance and distribution patterns related to the topography, hydrography, abundance, distribution and behavior of krill predators in the South Orkney Islands area near Antarctica.
This multi-year commitment provides data that complements two other annual scientific surveys undertaken by the U.S. AMLR Program and the British Antarctic Survey. Together, these three surveys can provide an integrated monitoring system in the areas containing significant concentrations of krill that are the focus of the present commercial fishery.
The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, WWF- Norway and Aker BioMarine recommended a survey be carried out annually, and Aker offered its vessel, Saga Sea, to the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and Norway to carry out the five-day survey in 2011.
Norway has recently become the nation with the largest landings of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) from the Southern Ocean, with catches representing more than half of the total fishery.
