Fisheries assessment directed ecological studies and ecological monitoring are necessary to provide the information required for ecosystem management. Monitoring of indicator species to indirectly detect ecological trends in the Antarctic marine ecosystem is proposed. The most suitable indicator species for the Antarctic ecosystem are krill predators. Crabeater seals, Antarctic fur seals, chinstrap and Adelie penguins appear to have characteristics which offer the greatest potential as possible indicators of krill harvest-related changes in the ecosystem.

The paper briefly reviews the history and present status of Antarctic fisheries. To introduce the topic of the potential effects of harvest-related perturbations, some hypothetical impacts of past and future fisheries are presented. A section on the design of Antarctic monitoring programs discusses variation in the ecosystem, the detection of changes, the selection of indicator species, experimental design, and the application of various technologies to ecological monitoring.