The Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies (ARK) has agreed to use some of its vessels to help monitor the status of the krill population in the waters surrounding the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia Island.
The monitoring will be done in the winter months to augment an ongoing similar effort by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) during the Austral summer to monitor the same krill fishery and to study the foraging behaviour and breeding performance of land-based marine predators in the area.
A series of trial surveys were carried out in the area by Aker BioMarine's krill harvesting vessel Saga Sea in August and September 2020. Further details about the sampling protocol will be delineated and agreed in the coming months as more of the ARK's vessels are committed to the programme.
