Detailed distribution of krill fishing around South Georgia

The distribution of kri!! harvesting effort and associated catch rates has previously only been available to the scientific community in the form of sub-area or fine-scale(0.5 ° latitude by 1 ° longitude) recorded statistics. Earlier analyses of these data have shown this was a shelf-break fishery over much of the Scotia Sea. Although these statistics give a general idea of where the fishery has operated they do not reveal the localised nature of the fishing operation. In particular they give little ecological insight into how the fishable aggregations relate to the local environmental conditions. Over the last three winter fishing seasons (1993-1995) haul by haul statistics have been recorded in the South Georgia area. Analyses of these data show marked interannual variability and indications of a seasonal pattern. In 1994 the fishery was almost totally based over a large shallow bank area on the north-east shelf edge. During 1995 the fishery was still predominantly in this area but also operated further west on a range of banks associated with submarine canyons. The data for 1993 were only available from August but the fishery was restricted in that period to an area on the western edge of the shelf break where negligible fishing occurred in the following two seasons. The results are discussed in relation to the ecology of krill and the fishery interaction with the local predator colonies.