Preliminary results of a dedicated cetacean sighting vessel-based krill survey in East Antarctica (115°–130°E) during the 2015/16 austral summer season

At the EEM-15, it was agreed that detailed information on survey design of the dedicated cetacean sighting vessel-based krill (CSVK) survey by Japan, would be submitted with data from the first of these annual surveys to the next meeting of WG-SAM (2016), to assess the survey design, in particular the trade-offs between the primary goal of gathering information on cetaceans versus the secondary goal of gathering information on krill. This paper summarizes the information of survey design and results of the first CSVK survey in East Antarctica (115°-130°E) conducted during the 2015/16 austral summer season. The survey was designed for the main purpose of obtaining systematic sighting data for whale abundance estimates. Along the sighting track-lines, krill survey (based on echo-sounder and net sampling) and oceanographic survey (based on CTD) as well some feasibility studies on biopsy sampling and telemetry in Antarctic minke whales, and routine photo-id and biopsy sampling on large whales, were also conducted. Technical input from the WG-SAM 16 will be useful to improve the survey plan for the next multidiscipline survey in 2016/17.