CCAMLR

The Area proposed for special protection is a small and narrow strip of waters extending approximately 9.5 km in length immediately to the south of Terra Nova Bay Station and up to a maximum of 7 km from the shore. The total area of the proposed site is just under 30 km2.
The boundaries proposed have been selected on the basis of the following criteria:
a) the proposed area encompasses the marine sites of primary scientific interest close to the coast and south of the station, within which long-term data have been collected;
b) the waters and benthic communities down to 200 m in depth are of greatest scientific interest, and the boundaries have been designed so as to include most of this region;
c) lines of latitude and longitude in the north, east and south offer a clear and practical definition of boundary coordinates which can be readily identified on maps and by ship navigation systems;
d) the need to ensure practical access by ships to Terra Nova Bay Station and that the associated operational activities were not unduly impeded;
e) the length of the proposed area ensures there is a gradient of distance from the station, which is useful when monitoring the extent of potential station impacts;
f) the marine area adjacent to the local Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony is included, which is considered potentially useful for monitoring the marine influence of the colony as a comparison to human influences. Special protection of the colony per se, however, is not considered necessary to meet the aims and objectives of the proposed management plan.

Satellite telemetry was used to determine the winter movements and distributions of five chinstrap and six Adélie penguins from two breeding colonies in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula region during the 2000 and 2001-2002 austral winters, respectively. Three chinstrap penguins from a breeding site in Admiralty Bay, King George Island (62° 10’ S, 58° 30’ W) were instrumented with satellite tags in early March 2000, following their annual molt; similarly, two birds were tagged in late February at their breeding site on Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island (62° 28’ S, 60° 46’ W). All five chinstrap penguins were tracked for a minimum of three months each, while one bird was followed for 5 months. Locations were obtained using the ARGOS satellite system and data analyses revealed that 4 of the 5 chinstrap penguins foraged largely on the shelf to the north and northeast of the South Shetland Islands in ice-free areas. The fifth chinstrap penguin, from the colony on KGI, proceeded northeast to the Elephant Island area and spent the next 4-5 months continuing to the East. This bird’s signal was lost just to the west of the South Sandwich Island group in late July, approximately 1300 km from its breeding colony. The migration path of this chinstrap penguin is remarkably similar to the only other record of a chinstrap penguin’s winter migration reported by Wilson et al. (1998). Three Adélie penguins with PTTs were tracked from mid-February to early April 2001, following their molt in the KGI breeding colony. All individuals remained in the Bransfield Strait adjacent to the western shore of the Antarctic Peninsula, within 150 km of the breeding colony where they were tagged. The following season, we attached PTTs to three Adélie penguins feeding large, nearly fledged chicks on KGI in late January 2002. We tracked all three around the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, deep into the Weddell Sea where they presumably hauled out to molt in late March – early April, between 69° and 70° S latitude. Our results suggest that Adélie and chinstrap penguins breeding in the same colonies during the summer may have vastly different migratory behaviors in winter. This may be a strategy evolved to avoid significant losses to any given breeding population by dispersing individuals to different winter ranges.

The attached document provides information on an atlas of sea ice produced by the n. It was compiled from AVHRR satellite imagery initially to provide information on the sea ice in the vicinity of the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program sites at Bechervaise Island near the Australian Station of Mawson, at Edmonson Point in the vicinity of the Italian Station of Terra Nova Bay and at Ross Island. The atlas is scheduled for release in August 2002.
Here we provide a sample only of the contents of the atlas which includes
• Title page
• Abstract
• Sample images from Bechervaise Island and Edmonson Point CEMP monitoring sites
The sample images chosen are for two breeding seasons of the Adélie penguins at Bechervaise Island and cover the period September to the following March in each of the seasons 1995/6 and 1997/98. Season 1995/6 was one of low breeding success and when the sea ice remained at the coast until February. Season 1997/8 by contrast showed good breeding success. This season the sea ice retreated earlier from the coast and for most of the chick rearing period there was open water to the edge of the Island.
Volume 1 of the Atlas contains the introduction and information on data collection, data processing and interpretation of the images. The remaining 5 volumes relate to the geographic areas which are centered on Mawson, Davis, Casey, Dumont D’Urville and Terra Nova Bay. The latter volume also includes Ross Island
The sea ice atlas will be available to Members on request to the Data Centre, Australian Antarctic Division (http://its-db.aad.gov.au/aadc/feedback/feedback.cfm) and will be provided on a series of CD ROMs.

During the breeding season, Antarctic fur seals are central-place foragers, ranging from their colony to feeding areas hours to days offshore, returning periodically to suckle. Outside of this, little is known about a female’s foraging strategy, her success upon which depends not only her survival but that of her young. As such, a fundamental component to understanding the survival and reproductive success of fur seals is to identify habitat preferences. Our objective was to characterize the distribution and range of foraging females rearing pups at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica. We instrumented 95 females with ARGOS satellite-linked transmitters prior to departures on foraging trips from late December to late February for four consecutive breeding seasons (1998/99-2001/02). We had 7,550 successful at-sea satellite locations (mean: 12/day/female, SE±0.11), after the data were filtered to eliminate positions that required females to travel >4m/sec. Foraging trip lengths averaged 4.0 days (SE±0.11). The mean range traveled offshore was 83.3km (SE?2.9) and the maximum distance was 369.1km. Foraging trip length was positively correlated with both foraging range (r2=0.48, F1,169=157.73, P

Antarctic fur seal pup growth studies presented and reviewed by WG-EMM-01 led to discussion on the need to modify Standard Method C2: Pup growth. The issues discussed relate to the timing of sampling and the selection of animals to weigh. The following is a proposal on how the protocol and reporting should be changed to facilitate future inter-annual and inter-regional comparisons of fur seal pup growth.

Discovered in 1819, the South Shetland Islands soon became the focus of intensive sealing efforts. Abundant, but never quantified, Antarctic fur seal populations were exterminated by 1874 and did not begin re-colonizing until ~80yrs later. The first reported pups born post-exploitation were found at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island in January 1960. In 1987, an archipelago-wide aerial and ground census identified breeding colonies and substantial increases in pup production. This paper reports the results of a ground survey of all known fur seal colonies from Smith to Elephant Islands from 30 January –5 February 2002. Multiple counts of pups at each colony were conducted to establish confidence limits on pup production. Total pup production was 10,057 (±142); 85% were from Cape Shirreff (64%) and San Telmo Islands (21%). Dead pups accounted for 1.37% of the total. A comparison with previous censuses over a 15yr period (1987, 1992, 1994, and 1996) indicates the rate of increase in fur seal populations has diminished substantially. The averaged annual rate of increase from 1987-1994 was between 13.5-13.9%. From 1994-1996 it was 8.5% and from 1996-2002 the average annual rate was +0.9%. Pup production at individual colonies varied with some increasing and others decreasing. The San Telmo Islands had the largest decline from 2684 pups in 1996 to 2124 in 2002 (-3.5%/yr). Pup production at Cape Shirreff increased from 4968 to 6453 pups (5.0%/yr) during the same period. Cape Lindsey, Elephant I., and the Seal Islands had averaged annual declines of –9.4 and -6.3% from 1996-2002.

A model was recently proposed to predict the target strengths (TS) of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, versus incidence angle (?) [McGehee et. al, 1998, Deep Sea Res. Pt2, 45(7)1273-1294]. Based on the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA), the model depends upon the coherent summation of scattering from elements of a discretized bent cylinder. It was empirically validated at 120 kHz near broadside incidence (? ? 90°), but large discrepancies were observed at other angles away from the main lobe. As the side-lobe measurements were both higher than the model predictions and above the noise floor, the authors noted that the differences were not entirely due to noise. In this study, the accuracy of the DWBA model is further explored. Results indicate that phase variability in the scatter from elements of a discretized bent cylinder (krill model) causes a dramatic flattening in the side-lobe regions of TS(?), while negligibly affecting the main scattering lobe. These results are consistent with the krill TS measurements in McGehee et al. (1998). Thus, by accounting for phase-variability in the solution of the DWBA model, a more accurate and thus practical tool is developed for predicting krill TS.

Total scattering cross-sections (st) of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, were acoustically measured over a broadbandwidth (36 to 202 kHz) using a new technique [J. De Rosny and P. Roux, 2001, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 109(6): 2587:2597]. From 18 February to 9 March 2002, mean total target strengths ( ??10log(??4?) t TTS ), were measured from groups of 57 to 1169 krill (average standard length = 31.6 mm; standard deviation = 6.6 mm), at the Cape Shirreff field station, Livingston Island, Antarctica, and aboard R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya. Chirp pulses were sequentially transmitted with an omnidirectional emitter into one of three glass carboys containing groups of krill swimming in 9.3, 19.3 or 45.9 l of seawater ( 0.6 ??temperature??3.6 °C). Between each pulse, the krill moved within the fixed-boundary-tank and the modulated reverberations were sensed bi-statically with three omnidirectional receivers. At each center frequency (fc), the coherent energy in 200-pulse ensembles identified sound scattered from the tank. The incoherent energy described total sound scattering from the krill. Thus, the TTS at each fc was extracted from a correlation analysis of energy reverberated in the tank. Measurement accuracy was determined using standard metal spheres for references [Demer et al., in-press, J. Acoust. Soc. Am.], and the precision was estimated from the variability in krill TTS measurements. Moreover, empirical estimates of mean s t were statistically compared to a recently proposed krill scattering model based on the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) [McGehee et. al, 1998, Deep Sea Res. Pt2, 45(7): 1273-1294], which has been enhanced to account for the stochastic nature of sound scattering (SDWBA) [Demer and Conti, submitted, ICES J. Mar. Sci.], and integrated over all scattering angles (SDWBATTS). This study improves upon methods for acoustical identification and target strength estimation for Antarctic krill, thus reducing the uncertainty in biomass estimation using multi-frequency echo sounder data and echo integration methods.

Demographic parameters (age-specific mortality rates, fecundity levels and population numbers) were analysed for the Béchervaise Island Adélie penguin colony in eastern Antarctica after 12 years of CEMP monitoring. A life table was constructed, and predicted rates of population growth and breeding success calculated. As for most long-lived seabird species, growth/decline rates of the Adélie penguin population at Béchervaise Island were found to be more sensitive to changes in annual survival rates, especially of young breeding adults, than to changes in fecundity parameters. These findings are discussed briefly in relation to other CEMP parameters, environmental factors and fishery regulation.

Seven fledging Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) chicks and four post-moult adults were satellite-tracked using the Argos system during the winters of 1995-97 and 1998 respectively. Six fledglings departed from Béchervaise Island near Mawson station (67°35'S, 62°49'E) during late February 1996 and 1997 and were tracked for up to five months before transmissions stopped. The seventh chick left Magnetic Island near Davis station (68°33'S, 77°54'E) in February 1995 and was tracked for 32 days. All fledglings travelled northward initially, then westward along the edge of the fast-ice or in the pack-ice. Fledglings had travelled between 536 and 1931 km to the west of their natal colonies by the time transmissions ceased. Adult Adélie penguins were tracked between March and October 1998, following completion of their annual moult at Bechérvaise Island. Instruments were factory-set to transmit intermittently for the first five months and one day in four thereafter. Adult birds travelled westward until July after which time they moved north within the expanding pack-ice into known areas of high krill concentration before returning eastward toward their breeding sites. Penguin movements over the winter months were closely related to those of sea-ice in the region. Ice motion patterns were in turn influenced by gyral oceanic current systems and wind. We propose that large gyral oceanic systems provide a means for Adélie penguins to reduce costs of transport as they travel into regions of high productivity during winter and return to their breeding colonies in spring. Locations of boundaries of oceanic gyres may thus be useful to CCAMLR in the regulation of the Antarctic krill fishery as a means of delimiting management regions.