CCAMLR nominated acoustic transects undertaken by fishing vessels at South Georgia in 2021

In 2021 four krill fishing vessels undertook nominated CCAMLR transects T9, T10 and T11 on the northeast shelf (ECB), and T6 and T8 at the northwest shelf (WCB) of South Georgia. Transects from the ECB were undertaken in June and August, whilst those within the WCB only in August. Guidelines were provided with two tasks (1) a bottom calibration area for inter-vessel comparison, and (2) data collection along nominated transects. These are the first nominated CCAMLR transects collected by fishing vessels in Subarea 48.3, an important source of information for a year where the fishery did not take substantial catches due to a low krill abundance, and pave the way to future information on the winter distribution of krill at South Georgia. The protocols developed are an update of previous work by ASAM and could be further developed and used for monitoring krill with multiple vessels at other subareas.