Safeguarding Antarctic krill stocks for baleen whales

What the project does

This project improves our understanding of how Antarctic krill, foraging whales, and the krill fishery interact in space and time. Our goal is to support better krill fishery management and conserve krill-based ecosystems.

This project provides information to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to improve krill fishery management and conservation of krill-based ecosystems.

A fin whale (Credit: Ryan R Reisinger)

Why this matters 

Antarctic krill are a key species in the Southern Ocean. They are among the most abundant animals on Earth and a major food source for penguins, seals, and baleen whales. Krill are also harvested commercially.

Understanding how whales, krill, and fisheries interact is essential. This is especially important as baleen whale populations recover and climate change affects krill distribution.

CCAMLR manages the krill fishery using an ecosystem approach. Krill stocks must remain productive, and fishing should not harm krill-dependent predators.

krill

To protect nature and support biodiversity, we need to better understand how whales, Antarctic krill and krill fishing overlap in space and time. This matters more than ever as baleen whale numbers recover from past hunting, and climate change affects krill distribution. 

Current management occurs at large scales, while fishing is often concentrated in smaller areas.

Science objectives

• Tracking whale behaviour with biologging tags, focusing on fin whales
• Mapping krill distribution with active acoustic echosounders 
• Tracking krill fishing activity with data from CCAMLR and Global Fishing
• Understanding predator-prey dynamics relevant to both the fishery and the ecosystem

Who is involved

This project is funded by Darwin Plus.

Research objectives:

We will conduct fieldwork to deploy biologging tags and conduct prey surveys in the Western Antarctic Peninsula region, over two austral summers/autumns (early 2024 and early 2025).

1. Whale foraging behaviour and distribution will be measured using biologging tags, with a particular focus on fin whales – a significant but poorly known consumer of krill. Whales will be tracked using two kinds of tags: 1) CATS tags which provide high resolution, fine scale information on the three-dimensional behaviour of whales, and 2) LIMPET tags to provide longer-term information on the location and behaviour of whales.
2. Krill swarm distribution will be measured using active acoustic echosounder surveys. Echosounder surveys will be conducted from a yacht-mounted echosounder, supplemented by an autonomous surface vehicle (ImpYak) also carrying an echosounder, to map the three-dimensional structure of prey fields. These small platforms will enable us to survey near-shore areas safely, areas that are not possible to study using larger research vessels.
3. Krill fishing vessel distribution and behaviour will be obtained from CCAMLR and Global Fishing Watch. These will be used to locate the fishing vessel activity and model forecasts of overlap among krill, whales and fisheries.

Ryan R. Reisinger (University of Southampton)

Philip Anderson (Scottish Association for Marine Science)

Ari Seth Friedlaender (University of California Santa Cruz)

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