We use cookies on our website. Some are necessary for the operation of the website. You can also allow cookies for statistical purposes. You can adjust the data protection settings or agree to all cookies directly.
Data Protection Declaration
Imprint
Stock assessment: Monitoring and biological investigations of Antarctic krill stocks and development of conservation measures under CCAMLR
Project
Project code: vTI-SF-08-9
Contract period: 01.01.2001
- 31.12.2013
Purpose of research: Inventory & Assessment
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are worldwide the largest but hardly exploited marine living resource. Annual catch rates exceed 100.000 t, compared to a maximum potential catch limit of almost 5 million t set by CCAMLR. Currently, an increase in catch rates is expected for the coming years, because new products have been developed for mariculture and pharmaceutical markets including chitosan products.
Krill stocks are distributed quite unevenly across the Southern Ocean. Areas of high krill densities are also areas where krill predators congregate in large numbers. Therefore, a commercial fishery might very easily develop as a serious competitor for the krill resource when concentrating in relative small areas despite the large overall krill biomass. Biological investigations carried out by the Institute of Sea Fisheries are constantly monitoring krill stocks in the Atlantic sector, collecting data on krill life cycle, stock demography as well as stock dynamics. These regional studies are linked to other international programmes, and joint efforts analyse stock developments in relation to large scale climate effects (e.g. sea-ice fluctuations). Results of this work are directly fed into the work of CCAMLR and serve as a basis for the decision-making process on the precautionary regulations of the krill fishery.
Working group / Conferences: CCAMLR WG Ecosystem Monitoring and Management; CCAMLR WG Marine Protected Areas; CCAMLR annual meeting; ICES AFWG
Cruises: annually Antarctic cruise on RV 'Polarstern' or other research vessels
Section overview
Subjects
- Marine fisheries
- Climate Change
