Antarctic krill is a key species in the Antarctic marine ecosystem: it is an important food source for many species, such as whales, seals and penguins.
Antarctic krill is a key species in the Antarctic marine ecosystem: it is an important food source for many species, such as whales, seals and penguins. However, the small crustaceans are increasingly becoming the focus of fishing, which can incur significant consequences for the entire Southern Ocean ecosystem. Therefore, concepts that minimize the negative effects of fishing on the krill themselves and on the animals that feed on krill are required urgently. A research team from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research in Bergen has now been able to use acoustic recordings, that fishing vessels routinely record, to identify areas and periods in which there is an increased overlap between fishing and krill predators. The results can contribute to developing effective management strategies to protect the Antarctic ecosystem. The study will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
"In conducting our study, together with our colleagues from Norway, we analyzed more than 30,000 hours of echo sounder recordings collected by three krill fishing vessels in the Southern Ocean over a period of six years," as Dominik Bahlburg from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), stated. Using a segmentation model and artificial intelligence, the researchers were able to filter out signals that whales, penguins and seals emit when they dive under fishing vessels. "During such encounters, ships and krill predators pursue the same krill swarms. This allowed us to systematically analyse the spatial and temporal dynamics of this competition in order to identify locations and time periods where the interaction between the two groups is particularly intensive."
Read more at: Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
In search of krill, fishing vessels in the Southern Ocean encounter penguins during their main breeding season in the immediate vicinity of their breeding colonies. (Photo Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Dominik Bahlburg)
