| Summary: | The year of 2017 is outstanding due to the 50th anniversary of the first Soviet fisheries studies in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean (FAO area 58), which were carried out on board a medium research and exploration vessel, the medium freezer trawler «Aelita» (length overall 54 m), in harsh weather conditions for the period from December 9, 1967, to April 25, 1968. As a part of the whaling fleet «Soviet Ukraine», «Aelita»'s mission involved exploration of whales and fish and krill aggregations in the Subantarctic area. The scientific crew of «Aelita» detected for the first time dense aggregations of the marbled rockcod Notothenia rossii, grey rockcod Lepidonotothen squamifrons as well as icefish species: mackerel icefish Champsocephalus gunnari, unicorn icefish Channichthys rhinoceratus, and the Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides. They were recorded in the shelf area of the Crozet and Kerguelen Islands on January 24, and then on February 9, 1968. The results of the second and third «Aelita» cruises (1968-1970) confirmed strong fishery potential of the off-island areas of the Subantarctic. Owing to the information obtained, 141 expeditions from AzCherNIRO and AzCherrybpromrazvedka operated in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean from 1967 to 1991. Multiscale complex research studies of habitat, food reserves, biology and stocks of commercially important fish species in the vicinity of the Kerguelen and Crozet Islands were carried out as well as research of krill and fish stocks in the continental shelf area. During that period, the data on evidenced resources were not published in the public media. AzCherNIRO (later on YugNIRO) studies in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean allowed to determine that high bioproductivity of the region was caused by cyclonic and anti-cyclonic vortices and by the zones of currents convergence and divergence. The «hydrodynamic trap» effect was identified for plankton, which ensured sufficient food resources for krill. A new hydrologic front, formed as a result ...
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