US AMLR Program 2011 Austral Summer Vessel Survey (AMLR2011, EK60)

The 2010/11 U.S. Antarctic Marine Living Resources (U.S. AMLR) field season continues a long-term series of studies of the Antarctic Peninsula ecosystem, designed to provide scientific support for the conservation and management of Antarctic marine fisheries as outlined by the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The U.S. AMLR Program is managed by NOAA Fisheries' Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division (AERD) of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The research completed in the field is used to describe the Antarctic ecosystem as a function of the relationships among Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), their predators, and the physical and biological oceanographic conditions of Antarctic waters. Two working hypotheses form the basis of research conducted by the U.S. AMLR Program: 1) krill predators respond to changes in the availability of their food source, and 2) the distribution of krill is affected by both physical and biological aspects of their habitat. The primary objectives of the bioacoustic survey were to map the meso-scale dispersion of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands and to determine their association with predator foraging patterns, water mass boundaries, spatial patterns of primary productivity, and bathymetry. In addition, efforts were made to map the distribution of myctophids and to determine their relationship with water mass boundaries and zooplankton distribution.