Commercial fisheries may impact marine ecosystems and affect populations of predators like seabirds. In the Southern Ocean, there is an extensive fishery for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba that is projected to increase further. Comparing distribution and prey selection of fishing operations versus predators is needed to predict fishery-related impacts on krill-dependent predators. In this context, it is important to consider not only predators breeding near the fishing grounds but also the ones breeding far away and that disperse during the non- overlap between the distribution of the Antarctic krill fisheries and the distribution of a krill dependent seabird, the Antarctic petrel Thalassoica antarctica, during both the breeding and non-breeding season. We tracked birds from the world biggest Antarctic petrel colony (Svarthamaren, Dronning Maud Land), located >1000 km from the main fishing areas, during three consecutive seasons. The overall spatial overlap between krill fisheries and Antarctic petrels was limited but varied greatly among and within years, and was high in some periods during the non-breeding season. In a second step, we described the length frequency distribution of Antarctic krill consumed by Antarctic petrels, and compared this with results from fisheries, as well as from diet studies in other krill predators. Krill taken by Antarctic petrels did not differ in size from that taken by trawls or from krill taken by most Antarctic krill predators. Selectivity for specific Antarctic krill stages seems generally low in Antarctic predators. Overall, our results show that competition between Antarctic petrels and krill fisheries is currently likely negligible. However, if krill fisheries are to increase in the future, competition with the Antarctic petrel may occur, even with birds breeding thousands of kilometers away. 

Adaptive feedback management is a core component of the ecosystem based management approach that is being implemented by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). The Mapping Application for Penguin Populations and Projected Dynamics (MAPPPD) is a web-based, open access, decision support tool that would greatly assist meeting the management objectives as set forth by CCAMLR and other components of the ATS (i.e., Consultative Meetings and the ATS Committee on Environmental Protection). The database underlying MAPPPD includes all available (published and unpublished) data on the four Sphenisciforme penguins (Emperor; Aptenodytes forsteri; gentoo; Pygoscelis papua; Chinstrap; P. antarcticus; and Adélie penguins; P. adelieae) for the region south of 60° S. A Bayesian population model integrates the available data to develop estimates of abundance for each site and for each year since 1979; estimates are easily aggregated across multiple sites to obtain abundance estimates over any user-defined area of interest. A front-end web interface located at www.penguinmap.com provides easy access to the data, with a web based map that allows users to select individual or groups of site(s) using polygons or text searches. Once selected, population data from the model (including future forecasts) are displayed and made available for download. Users can also generate a PDF report that summarizes the data for the sites selected from the application. MAPPPD provides free and ready access to the most recent count and modeled data, and can act as a facilitator for data transfer between Antarctic stakeholders to help inform management decisions for the continent.

Petermann Island (65°10'S, 64°10'W), one of the Antarctic Peninsula’s most frequently visited locations, is at the epicenter of a rapid shift in which an Adélie penguin dominated fauna is becoming gentoo penguin dominated. Over the course of five seasons, the breeding productivity of Adélie and gentoo penguins breeding at Petermann Island were monitored to identify drivers of this rapid community change. The impact of tourist visitation on breeding success was also investigated. Consistent with larger trends in this region, the Adélie penguin population decreased by 29% and the gentoo penguin population increased by 27% between the 2003/2004 and 2007/2008 seasons. Reproductive success among Adélie penguins ranged from 1.09 to 1.32 crèched chicks/nest, which was higher than or comparable to other sites and is an unlikely explanation for the precipitous decline of Adélie penguins at Petermann Island. Whereas gentoo penguin reproductive success was lowest in colonies frequently visited by tourists, Adélie penguin colonies frequently visited by tourists had higher reproductive success than those visited only occasionally. These results are placed in the context of other studies on reproductive success and the impact of tourist visitation on breeding colonies of Adélie and gentoo penguins.

Changes in the Antarctic ecosystem have been triggered by anthropogenic and natural factors. This paper reviews the scientific information of whales that could be indicative of changes in the East Antarctica ecosystem in the context of two hypotheses, the ‘krill surplus’ hypothesis in the middle of the past century and the recovery of krill-eater large whales since the 1980’s. There was an interest to investigate the effects of those events on other krill predators such as the Antarctic minke whale, which had not been exploited on a large scale. A review of the scientific information in East Antarctica (70°E-170°W) showed that the increased krill availability in the middle of the past century could have been translated into better nutritional conditions for some krill predators like the Antarctic minke whale, resulting in a decreasing trend in the age at sexual maturity of this species between approximately 1940 and 1970. A low age at sexual maturity favored an increase in the recruitment rate and total population size in a similar period. The evidence available since the 1980’s showed a sharp increase in the abundance of some species in East Antarctica such as the humpback and fin whales. The evidences also showed that the nutritional conditions of Antarctic minke whales have deteriorated as revealed by a decrease in energy storage and stomach content weight since the 1980’s. This observation is consistent with the stable trend of age at sexual maturity and recruitment after 1970’s. The stable trend in recruitment is consistent with the total abundance of Antarctic minke whale estimated by sighting surveys, which has been broadly stable since the 1980’s. The observations above suggest availability of krill for Antarctic minke whales could have decreased in recent years. Decrease in availability of krill for this species could result from competition with other recovering krill-eater large whale species, e.g. the reversal of Law’s ‘krill surplus hypothesis’. Environmental factors alone are unlikely to explain the observed changes in demographic parameters in Antarctic minke whales. An implication of this is that in East Antarctica, competition for space and food could better explain the pattern of changes in biological and demographic parameters observed among sea-based krill predators. However to further investigate the plausibility of this hypothesis it will be necessary to obtain information on krill biomass trends in the research area. There is some partial information based on past dedicated krill surveys but the information is scattered and needs to be combined with new surveys in a comprehensive and consistent way so that a time series can be obtained.

Due to uncertainties in Antarctic krill stock, which do not allow scientists to develop comprehensive system of Feedback management of krill fishery and to provide work on forecast of the ecosystem changes, Ukraine proposes to change the Conservation Measure 51-06(2014) making the scientific observation system in the krill fishery mandatory.

Korea Polar Research Institute, with support of the Korean Ministry of Environment, has conducted an annual survey on the breeding biology of Chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) as a part of a long-term ecological research at Narębski Point (Antarctic Specially Protected Area, No. 171), Barton Peninsula on King George Island. Since 2012/2013, the number of breeding pairs has been steadily declining for both species. The breeding success of the two penguin species is also on a decreasing trend since 2009/2010, albeit an inter-annual fluctuation.

ATCM 39/XP019 discusses the work of SC-CAMLR on climate change.  It notes that the effects of climate change also includes the effects of ocean acidification.  Articles II and IX provide the impetus for work in the Scientific Committee on the effects of climate change, in order to provide, in a timely manner, the ‘best scientific evidence available’ on three issues

1. Risks of climate change threatening the conservation of species, changing the vulnerability of species and/or foodwebs to the effects of fishing, or increasing the risk of invasive marine species in the CCAMLR area;
2. Status of AMLR and the Antarctic marine ecosystem relative to the Reference State and whether actions may be required to conserve AMLR because the Reference State had changed;
3. Requirements for adapting harvest strategies in the future so as fishing does not increase the risk of failing to conserve AMLR in the long term.

The state of knowledge on impacts of climate change on Southern Ocean ecosystems was summarised.  It was noted that climate change has been appearing regularly in discussions in SC-CAMLR since 2002 and came on to the agenda of SC-CAMLR in 2008. A constant theme since then has been to develop a risk assessment framework for identifying when climate change impacts may need attention from the Commission, along with developing a ‘state of environment’ report.  Most work in SC-CAMLR has been within the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG-EMM).  In this regard, WG-EMM has focussed on the effects of climate change on Antarctic krill and its habitats, along with a proposal to manage ocean areas adjacent to the Antarctica Peninsula uncovered by ice shelf collapse.  It was also noted that SC-CAMLR does not yet have an explicit strategy and timetable of work for (i) assessing climate change impacts on AMLR or (ii) providing advice to the Commission on how to deal with climate change.  Nevertheless, many Members have engaged with developing approaches to address climate change impacts when developing strategies on at least three current issues in SC-CAMLR: (i) the design of krill feedback management strategies to accommodate the potential for changing ecosystem state in the absence of fishing, (ii) proposals for representative marine protected areas incorporate considerations of adaptation of the system to climate change as well as having reference areas for measuring climate change impacts, (iii) the development of food web and ecosystem models for evaluating management and conservation strategies.  The paper describes how the work of the IMBER-SCAR program Integrated Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics of the Southern Ocean (ICED) and the SCAR-SCOR Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) can help both CCAMLR and CEP address the effects of climate change on their interests.  They are complementary programs working on, respectively, (i) assessments and modelling of change in Southern Ocean ecosystems (an ICED conference is to be held in 2018) and (ii) the design and implementation of observing systems and the integration and facilitation of access to the observational data.  Resolution 30/XXVIII (2009) encourages Members to become engaged in these two programs.  The resolution refers to ICED and the Southern Ocean Sentinel, the latter of which has had its aims incorporated into both ICED and SOOS.  SC-CAMLR and CEP would benefit from working with these two bodies to develop the capabilities necessary to deliver the advice on the three climate change issues of importance to them.  

In this study, we calibrated a commercial echosounder (ES70) installed on a krill fishing vessel to use it in estimating biomass of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). The method of calibration was to analyze the difference between the bottom backscattering strength of the commercial echosounder (i.e. ES70) and the scientific echosounder (i.e. EK60) at some transects designated by CCAMLR. 38kHz and 120kHz were used for the calibration, and krill swarm signals, obtained from multi frequencies, was examined to verify the calibration result. The analysis result confirmed the possibility of calibration by bottom backscattering strength, since the proportion of krill swarm signals within 2 dB < S_{V120kHz‒38 kHz} < 12 dB (i.e. a common ΔMVBS range of 38kHz and 120kHz to be an indicative of Antarctic krill) over the total acoustic signals were 26.95% and 92.04%, respectively before and after the calibration.

ATCM 39/XP018 provides an introduction to the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS; www.soos.aq).  SOOS aims to facilitate the collection and delivery of essential observations on dynamics and change of Southern Ocean systems to all international stakeholders (researchers, governments, industries).

SOOS will be implemented regionally through Regional Working Groups, currently one for the West Antarctic Peninsula and one for the Indian Sector.  A Ross Sea Working Group is in the process of being established.  Apart from the regional working groups, which will be of direct interest to the implementation of monitoring programs in different regions of the CCAMLR and Antarctic Treaty areas, there are 5 main topics described here that SC-CAMLR and CEP may be interested in participating and/or developing a relationship with SOOS:

1. the development of priority variables (“ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables” – eEOVs) for observing dynamics and change in Southern Ocean ecosystems (Constable et al. 2016). These variables are intended to be defined biological or ecological quantities, which are derived from field observations, and which contributes significantly to assessments of Southern Ocean ecosystems - status and trends in ecosystem properties, attribution of trends to causes, and predicting future trajectories;
2. the spatial and temporal design of a sustained circumpolar marine biological observing system in SOOS, which is intended to be completed in time for consideration at the ICED 2018 International Conference on Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (www.MEASO2018.aq);
3. the SOOS Portal for linking metadata, accessing datasets and synthesis products, and coordinating field activities, which aims to resolve two important gaps in the Southern Ocean science community – better access to all the data relevant to the Southern Ocean, and better advance knowledge of field activities in order to facilitate better co-ordination and collaboration in research programs.
4. assessments of the state of Southern Ocean ecosystems will be facilitated by SOOS through linking datasets through the SOOS Portal and in facilitating the collection of observations to support assessments.
5. circumpolar benchmarking of the state of Southern Ocean ecosystems in 2022, which will build on the work of GLOBEC, the Census of Antarctic Marine Life and the SCAR Biogeographic Atlas, to provide a comprehensive circumpolar ecological assessment that will link different long-term biological datasets from throughout the Southern Ocean and to provide the baseline for sustained circumpolar biological observations and assessments of change in the future.

Antarctic Krill plays an important role in Antarctic ecosystems as the medium that connects phytoplankton to penguins, seals, and whales. It is also in the limelight as an important protein source for the future food resource. Since Krill is mainly schooled within 200m depth, mass catching is operated by Norway, Korea, and Japan, etc. Major fishing area is the surroundings of South Sheltland where it is surrounded by Darke Passage in North, Weddle Sea in East, and Bransfield Strait in South. CCAMLR (Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) is currently implementing a regulation that limits Krill catch amount using fishing survey and acoustic assessment data in order to utilize Krill resources continuously.

This study is aimed to estimate the density and the biomass of Krill that inhabit in the surroundings of South Sheltland by using acoustics. An acoustic survey was conducted from April 13 to 24 in 2016 in the sea of South Sheltland using a commercial fishing vessel (GwangJa-Ho, 3,012 tonnage). Data on frequency 38 and 120 kHz (EK60, Simrad) were collected (survey area: 90,700 km²). Before the acoustic survey, the system correction (62°28.7‘S, 59°42.4’W) was made using a calibrated sphere with 60mm (frequency 38 kHz) and 23mm (frequency 120 kHz). Using an acoustic post-processing software (Echoview Ver6.0, Myriax), noises of collected data were processed and frequency differences were investigated by cell size (5ping*2m, 10ping*2m, 30ping*2m, 40ping*2m, 50ping*2m). In addition, the density and the biomass of Krill were calculated by applying frequency differences of Krill. The survey of fishing gears was conducted in seven stations of the sea where the acoustic survey had done using a midwater trawl. Samples were classified by species and catch amount, and the length of 200 Krills that were collected from each station was measured.

Results of fishing survey showed that over 99% of Krills were caught in 6 stations except station 3 where all Electrona calsbergi were caught. The range of caught Krill's TL was 23.8~57.6mm. Frequency differences of Krill by station were 7.0~9.7 dB at 5ping*2m, 7.0~9.7 dB at 10ping*2m, 7.0~9.8 dB at 30ping*2m, 7.0~9.8 dB at 40ping*2m, and 7.0~9.8 dB at 50ping*2m. It did not show a big difference by cell size, but the shape of Krill was changed as the cell size became larger. The frequency difference (average) of Electrona calsbergi was estimated to be –2.1 dB in all cells, and frequency characteristics of Krill and Electrona calsbergi on frequency 38 and 120 kHz were clearly different. Krill was shown to be higher density within 500m in water depth, especially the school of Krill was largely found in Bransfield strait. The average density and the current biomass of Krill by station were estimated to be 0.08~344.92 g/m² and 3 million tons (CV=39.4%), respectively.