Hydroacoustic survey of elephant island and the vicinity of King George Island, austral summer 1989

The hydroacoustic survey found a high krill abundance in the Elephant Island area (a “superswarm" not unlike 1981) and a very low abundance in the King George Island area compared to last years survey. The total biomass in the vicinity of Elephant Island estimated from 200 kHz survey data was 940 k tons with only 34 k tons in the King George Island/Bransfield Strait. The survey results apply to 6,057 nm2 near Elephant Island and 5,454 nm2 in the Bransfield Strait. The “superswarm” was estimated to contain 975 k tons of krill and covered approximately 200 nm2.