Krill predators at Bouvetøya

This project will report standardized data for krill predators - from Norwegian Antarctic territory (Bouvetøya) - to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources’s Environmental Monitoring Programme (CEMP).

All routine CEMP procedures for fur seals, chinstrap and macaroni penguins will be conducted at Bouvetøya in 2007/08 - adding to the on-going monitoring time series for this location.

Fur seal population size will be updated, using mark-recapture techniques. Adult female fur seal attendance will be measured. Pup growth data will be collected. Breeding population sizes of the both chinstrap and macaroni penguins will be assessed and age-specific annual recruitment, duration of foraging, breeding success, chick diet and breeding chronology will be documented for both penguin species. We will also document debris entanglement rates.

In addition, we will integrate the CEMP data within broader, foraging ecology and distribution analyses by studying the at-sea behaviour and distribution of chinstrap and macaroni penguins and fur seals. Prey surveys and sampling, and CTD oceanographic surveys conducted during IPY by Norway and the broader international Antarctic science community will permit the exploration of prey selectivity by these predators, assessment of foraging habitat selection and exploration of potential competition/competition avoidance between Bouvetøya’s krill predators. Thus, in addition to contributing to international fisheries management efforts and collecting novel data on diving behaviour and distribution for chinstrap and macaroni penguins from a little-studied sector of the Antarctic, ecological segregation - or the potential for competition - among the three krill predators will be explored. This NPI programme is financially assisted by the Research Council of Norway (RCN).

Project leader: Drs. Kit M. Kovacs & Christian Lydersen