Implementation and preliminary results from the synoptic krill survey in Area 48, 2019 conducted by the Chinese krill fishing vessel Fu Rong Hai

As a contribution to the joint effort on the large-scale synoptic krill survey of Area 48, the Chinese krill fishing vessel Fu Rong Hai conducted the survey in the Subarea 48.1 from 2 February to 10 February 2019. A total distance of about 875 n. mile transect acoustic data was collected using a hull-mounted Simard EK60 echosounder (38, 70 and 120 kHz), and 10 planned stations were sampled for krill biology using a commercial midwater otter trawl.  Acoustic data processing were carried out generally following the procedures applied in the CCAMLR 2000 survey analyses, and estimates of krill density were based on the 120 kHz data attributed to krill using the swarm-based method as well as the two-frequency (S_v120-38kHz) identification methods. Results show that mean krill areal biomass density is relatively higher than the estimates of the CCAMLR2000 survey in the same area. Main objective of the present work is to introduce the implementation and preliminary results from the synoptic survey conducted by the Chinese vessel, and further cooperated analysis on the survey data might be done in the upcoming Subgroup on Acoustic Survey and Analysis Methods (SG-ASAM) meeting.