Spatio‐temporal trends of the Krill fisheries in the Western Antarctic Peninsula and Southern Scotia Arc

Abstract Krill fisheries in Antarctica have concentrated their effort on the Western Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc (WAP) in the last decades, following a steady increase in annual catch. Short‐term shifts in habitat exploration may have occurred and may be the cause for the increasing catch. Ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fisheries Management and Ecology
Main Author: Krüger, Lucas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/fme.12363
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Ffme.12363
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/fme.12363
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/fme.12363
Description
Summary:Abstract Krill fisheries in Antarctica have concentrated their effort on the Western Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc (WAP) in the last decades, following a steady increase in annual catch. Short‐term shifts in habitat exploration may have occurred and may be the cause for the increasing catch. Habitat use and effort in krill fisheries in the WAP during summer between 2012/2013 and 2016/2017, inclusive, were tested to determine how habitat use and effort reflected in the catch. Increasing trends in fishing tow duration and depth of fishing in deeper and colder waters were found. No association of the catch with the habitat explored was found, but catch was higher in years when the variability of explored habitat was lower. The relevance of these findings for fisheries management and conservation of Antarctic marine ecosystems is discussed.