AWR LAUNCHING 11th CALL FOR PROPOSALS

AWR launches its 11th Call for Proposals and presents two new research projects that have received grants in 2024 with a total investment of USD$ 157,000.

”In an era of climate change and threats to biodiversity, it is more critical than ever that we obtain the information needed to secure the long-term health of marine ecosystems. AWR is pleased to celebrate a decade of funding research to support protection of the krill-based ecosystem in the Southern Ocean” says Claire Christian, the Chair of AWR’s board.

The two research projects receiving funding from AWR in 2024 are the following:

“High resolution mapping of key foraging areas for Pygoscelis penguins to inform small-scale management of krill fishery in CCAMLR subarea 48.1”
Ana Laura Machado-Gaye
Universidad de la República Uruguay – UdelaR (URUGUAY)
Funded amount: $ 88 320

“Contemporary, fine-scale, and long-term trends of krill predators: estimating Antarctic blue and fin whale call densities for use as indicators in CCAMLR spatial overlap analyses for an ecosystem approach to krill fishery management”
Susannah J. Buchan
Department of ceanography, Universidad de Concepción – UdeC (CHILE)
Funded amount: $ 68 835

“This is another year where AWR managed to support important research projects that will be key for the understanding of the Antarctic marine ecosystem and to contribute to the precautionary management of the Antarctic krill fishery,” said Dr. Rodolfo Werner, AWR Scientific Advisor, and Board member.

The next call for proposals is open

The 11th Call for Proposals is now open for applications. For 2025 AWR is looking for research projects that prioritize the following:

1.        Krill biology and ecology to inform krill fishery management

2.        Krill-Predator-Fishery Interaction

3.        Supporting spatial overlap for krill fishery management

4.        Cutting edge science to monitor krill for fishery management

These scientific priorities are identical to the last four years and in line with CCAMLR research priorities. This year again AWR call emphasizes the need to balance regional diversity, gender and early career scientist in the interest of representing the full diversity of institutions and scientists engaged in Antarctic research.

Closing date for AWR’s 11th Call for proposals is April 11, 2025

Read more about AWR here www.antarcticfund.org

a decade of support for antarctic ecosystem research

Since 2015 the Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund (AWR) has provided more than USD 1,5 million in project funding to Antarctic ecosystem research, supporting 24 projects across 18 science institutions in 10 different countries. See the full list of projects below.

Looking for whales in the Antarctic Peninsula

In 2023 AWR funded a proposal from Norwegian Polarinstitute to map whales in the Gerlache. The preliminary results are already here!

Over 27 days in April May 2024 a team of Mammal Observers carried out observations from the vessel Antarctic Endurance

They covered 1098 km in total, and around 150 hours of observation effort, which gave 480 observations of which 907 were individual whales, across 8 different species.

Some interesting findings and we are looking forward to the final report

AWR launches 9th call for proposals

AWR LAUNCHES ITS 9TH CALL FOR PROPOSALS AND PRESENTS TWO NEW RESEARCH PROJECTS THAT HAVE RECEIVED GRANTS IN 2022 WITH A TOTAL INVESTMENT OF USD 160,000

“In an era of climate change and threats to biodiversity, it is more critical than ever that we obtain the information needed to secure the long-term health of marine ecosystems. The projects funded by AWR will increase our ability to protect the krill-based ecosystem in the Southern Ocean,” says Claire Christian, the Chair of AWR’s board.

The two research projects receiving funding from AWR in 2022 are the following:

1. Estimates of baleen whale abundance that overlap in space and time with krill fishing in the Southwest Atlantic

Angus Henderson
University of Tasmania (UTAS), Australia
Funding: USD 68 000

1. Antarctic krill studied by crabeater seals beneath the sea ice

Sara Labrousse
Laboratoired’Océanographie et du Climat(LOCEAN) France
Funding: USD 92 000

SUPPORTING THE NEW KRILL MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

“This is another year where AWR managed to support important research projects that will be key for the understanding of the Antarctic marine ecosystem and will contribute to the precautionary management of the Antarctic krill fishery,” said Dr. Rodolfo Werner, AWR Scientific Advisor, and Board member.

“The CCAMLR krill fishery management is making big strides forward and getting increasingly reliant on up-to-date scientific information. Promoting and facilitating research on the Southern Ocean is essential in order to take care of the Antarctic marine ecosystem in which we operate, and we are proud that AWR can be part of the solution to fill knowledge gaps,” says Matts Johansen, CEO at Aker BioMarine.

THE NEXT CALL FOR PROPOSALS IS OPEN

The 9th Call for Proposals is now open for applications. For 2023 AWR is looking for research projects that prioritize the following:

1.               Krill biology and ecology to inform krill fishery management

2.               Krill-Predator-Fishery Interaction

3.               Supporting ‘risk assessment’, now referred as ‘spatial overlap analysis’ (previously known as risk assessment framework for the krill fishery management)

4.               Cutting edge science to monitor krill for fishery management

These scientific priorities have been the same for the last three years and are in line with CCAMLR research priorities. This year again AWR call emphasizes the need to balance regional diversity, gender and early career scientist in the interest of representing the full diversity of institutions and scientists engaged in Antarctic research.

Closing date for AWR’s 9th Call for proposals is 5 April 2023

Read more about AWR here www.antarcticfund.org

Investigating the nonbreeders

Not every penguin breeds every year!

Some fail early, either through inexperience, bird predation or weather.  Others may arrive in poor condition after a hard winter.  Regardless of the reason why, nonbreeding adult birds can make up a substantial proportion of a colony and they will likely contribute to the breeding population in subsequent years.  However as nonbreeders they have no need to return from sea to feed dependent chicks, and can potentially travel to more favourable foraging grounds at sea and remain feeding for longer periods that breeding conspecifics. 

We see whether this is the case, by comparing the foraging behaviour of nonbreeding and breeding adult Adelie penguins from the South Shetland Islands during the breeding season (austral summer).  Nonbreeding birds behaved differently to breeders, preferring to feed in the colder waters off the coast of the Peninsula rather than in the comparatively warmer waters of the northern Bransfield. Their larger foraging ranges during the chick-rearing stage of the breeding season also meant they can overlap with those of breeding birds from other colonies (intraspecific competition) or with other krill-foraging breeding penguins (interspecific competition).  Ultimately when using marine predators such as penguins as “sentinel species”, the behaviours of nonbreeders should be considered fully to correctly interpret the signals they are providing about the ecosystem, especially in the context of environmental management. 

“Conducting this project as a collaborative effort between South Africa, Argentina, Poland, the US and Norway has resulted in a first in terms of ecological research into meso-predator foraging ecology.”, says lead author Dr Chris Oosthuizen, University of Pretoria, South Africa

“I think it is long overdue that different life history stages of monitored species are considered when using marine predators as sentinel species. When we interpret what breeding stages of monitored species are telling us, we need to interpret it in the context of inter and intra specific competition with those monitored animals.  This work adds another important piece to the puzzle of understanding how the marine ecosystem functions., says Dr Andy Lowther , NPI. Norway.

Spying on chinstrap penguins

Chris Oosthuizen, research fellow at the University of Cape Town in South Africa was awarded project funding fro his project “Penguin-krill functional relationships in a region of high fishing pressure: building towards appropriate monitoring indices for adaptive management of the Antarctic krill fishery” from AWR in 2021. Below his report from his first field season on Monroe Island

Penguins breed in astonishing numbers on islands scattered around the Southern Ocean. Here, scientists can study their breeding behaviour and success, and estimate how population trends change over time. But scientists have historically had a harder time studying how penguins feed. This is because it is challenging to observe directly how penguins catch their underwater prey in areas of remote ocean habitat.

 “Our understanding of penguin foraging behaviour has rapidly grown during the last decades, as innovations in technology allowed ever more powerful remote monitoring” says Chris Oosthuizen, a research fellow at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. “Today, ecologists have access to a wide range of tags and sensors that can accurately measure animal position, diving depth, movement behaviour, and aspects of the environment that the animal encounters. This has opened exciting new avenues for ecological research”.

 A 2021 grant from the Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund is helping Chris and his colleagues - a team comprising scientists based in South Africa, Norway, Australia and France - to do just that. They have just completed their first field season studying the foraging behaviour of chinstrap penguins breeding at Monroe Island in the South Orkney Islands. “We are particularly interested in the foraging decisions and foraging efficiency of individual breeding chinstrap penguins”, explains Chris. “We want to know how foraging efficiency changes in time and space and in relation to external factors. To do this, we deployed miniature animal-borne video cameras in combination with accelerometers, which measured the penguins’ orientation and the dynamics of movement. The video footage gives us direct signals of prey capture events and context of the environment that the penguin is foraging in. Our immediate goal is now to train a model to also detect those prey capture events in the accelerometer data, so that we can eventually look at prey capture efficiency using accelerometer data in the absence of video data, and across a larger number of individuals. This type of information is important for krill fisheries management, especially in the South Orkney Islands region, and for the improved monitoring of penguin populations that depend on krill for their survival”.

Monroe Island is a small island to the west of Coronation Island, where tens of thousands of chinstrap penguins breed annually. However, there is no research station on the island. Thus, the team set up a field camp a short distance from the penguin colonies they studied this summer.

Penguin camera figures: “We observed penguins feeding on Antarctic krill at various depths, from the surface to depths of over 100 m”, AWR grant-holder Chris Oosthuizen said. “Groups of chinstrap penguins often targeted the same prey patch, and other krill predators such as Gentoo penguins, Antarctic fur seals, fin whales and humpback whales were also recorded in the video footage.” 

AWR LAUNCHING 8th CALL FOR PROPOSALS

AWR launches its 8th call for proposal and presents three new research projects that have received grants in 2021 with a total investment of USD$ 190,000.

“In an era of climate change and threats to biodiversity, it is more critical than ever that we obtain the information needed to secure the long-term health of marine ecosystems. The projects funded by AWR will increase our ability to protect the krill-based ecosystem in the Southern Ocean,” says Claire Christian, the Chair of AWR’s board.

The three research projects receiving funding from AWR in 2021 are the following:

1. Penguin-krill functional relationships in a region of high fishing pressure: building towards appropriate monitoring indices for adaptive management of the Antarctic krill fishery
   Chris Oosthuizen
   University of Cape Town, South Africa
   Funding: $72 000
   
   

2. Krill fishery and non-breeding penguins in the main fishing hotspot of Subarea 48.1: coupling animal tracking and ocean models to identify real-time and lagged interactions

   Lucas Krüger
   Instituto Antártico Chileno INACH, Chile
   Funding: $66 000
   
   

3. Detection and mitigation of Ice krill bycatch in the Antarctic krill fishery
   Andrew Brierley
   University of St. Andrews, UK
   Funding $52 000

“This is another year where AWR managed to support important research projects that will be key for the understanding of the Antarctic marine ecosystem and to contribute to the precautionary management of the Antarctic krill fishery,” said Dr. Rodolfo Werner, AWR Scientific Advisor, and Board member.

“The CCAMLR krill fishery management is making big strides forward and getting increasingly reliant on up-to-date scientific information. Promoting and facilitating research on the Antarctic ecosystem is essential in order to take care of the marine ecosystem in which we operate, and we are proud that AWR can be part of the solution to fill knowledge gaps,” says Matts Johansen, CEO at Aker BioMarine.

The next call for proposals is open

The 8th Call for Proposals is now open for applications. For 2022 AWR is looking for research projects that prioritize the following:

1.        Krill biology and ecology to inform krill fishery management

2.        Krill-Predator-Fishery Interaction

3.        Supporting risk assessment framework for krill fishery management

4.        Cutting edge science to monitor krill for fishery management

These scientific priorities are identical to the last two years and in line with CCAMLR research priorities. This year again AWR call emphasizes the need to balance regional diversity, gender and early career scientist in the interest of representing the full diversity of institutions and scientists engaged in Antarctic research.

Closing date for AWR’s 8th Call for proposals is April 8, 2022

New member of AWR Science Advisory Group (SAG)

AWR would like to thank Dr. Phil Trathan for his service as a longstanding member, as well as first Chair, of the AWR Science Advisory Group (SAG). We wish Phil all the best in his future endeavors.

We are very pleased to announce that Dr Hyong Sul La (Korea) will replace Dr. Trahan in SAG. Dr. La has a background in fisheries acoustics and will be a very welcome addition to the Antarctic marine science disciplines represented in SAG.

Read more about AWR here www.antarcticfund.org

AWR surpasses 1 million USD to support Antarctic science

AWR is launching its 7th call for proposal and presents the three new research projects that have received grants in 2020 with a total investment of USD$ 187,000. With this funding AWR has surpassed the milestone of 1 million USD devoted to Antarctic science project since the launch of the organization in 2015.  

“In an era of climate change and threats to biodiversity, it is more critical than ever that we obtain the information needed to secure the long-term health of marine ecosystems. The projects funded by AWR will increase our ability to protect the krill-based ecosystem in the Southern Ocean,” said Claire Christian, the Chair of AWR’s board. 

The three research projects receiving funding from AWR in 2020 are the following:

1. Assessing fine-scale behavior, interactions, body condition and krill consumption by cetacean krill predators with Unoccupied Aircraft Systems UAS
   Martin Biuw
   Institute of Marine Research, Norway
   Funding: $76 461

2. Assessing dynamics and characteristics of overlap between krill fisheries and humpback whale foraging

   Ryan Reisinger
   University of California Santa Cruz, USA
   Funding: $37 349

3. Environmental forcing of krill distribution in Area 48: Assessing current status and predicting future trends
   Cecilia Lizska
   British Antarctic Survey, UK
   Funding $73 185

“This is another year where AWR managed to support important research projects that will be key for the understanding of the Antarctic marine ecosystem and to contribute to the precautionary management of the Antarctic krill fishery,” said Dr. Rodolfo Werner, AWR Scientific Advisor, and Board member.

“The CCAMLR krill fishery management is making big strides forward and getting increasingly reliant on up to date scientific information. Promoting and facilitating research on the Antarctic ecosystem is essential in order to take care of the marine ecosystem in which we operate. That is why Aker BioMarine has supported AWR’s work with more than 1 million USD since 2015,” said Matts Johansen, CEO at Aker BioMarine.

The next call for proposals is now open

The seventh call for proposals is now open for applications. For 2021 AWR is looking for research projects that prioritize the following:

1.        Krill biology and ecology to inform krill fishery management

2.        Krill-Predator-Fishery Interaction

3.        Supporting risk assessment framework for krill fishery management

4.        Cutting edge science to monitor krill for fishery management

These scientific priorities are identical to last year, but this year the need to balance regional diversity, gender and early career scientist will also be emphasized in the interest of representing the full diversity of institutions and scientists engaged in Antarctic research.

Closing date for AWR’s 7th Call for proposals is March 26, 2021

Two new members added to the AWR Science Advisory Group (SAG) 

AWR is pleased to confirm two new scientists as members of the Science Advisory Group (SAG).

Dr. Elisa Seyboth (Brazil) and Dr. Xinliang Wang (China) have assumed their positions in October 2020. AWR would like to thank Dr Xianyong Zhao (China) and Mercedes Santos (Argentina) for their excellent service to AWR/SAG for the past five years.

Read more about SAG and its members here http://www.antarcticfund.org/sag

Read more about AWR here www.antarcticfund.org

AWR LAUNCHING 6TH CALL FOR PROPOSALS AT CCAMLR 2019

AWR launching its 6th call for proposals, and presenting all of four new research projects that have received grants in 2019. Four new science projects were granted the total of USD$155,000

“In an era of climate change and threats to biodiversity, it is more critical than ever that we obtain the information needed to secure the long-term health of marine ecosystems. The projects funded by AWR will increase our ability to protect the krill-based ecosystem in the Southern Ocean,” said Claire Christian, the Chair of AWR. 

The four granted research projects for 2019 are the following:

• A new approach to assess the connectivity among Euphausia superba populations: a metacommunity analysis of krill microbiota -  
  Juan Höfer, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

• How deep can they go?  Re-evaluating the vertical distribution of Antarctic krill -  
  Mary Kane, University of Rhode Island /Plymouth Marine Laboratory

• Spatio-temporal and functional overlap of flying seabirds with krill hotspots and the krill fishery in the Scotia Sea -
  Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey

• Biomarkers approach: Trophic ecology of inshore notothenid fish at Potter Cove, Antarctica, the importance of krill in their diets -  
  Eugenia Moreira Instituto AntárcticoArgentino /CONICET

AWR whishes the best of luck to the new funding initiatives!

A well established Antarctic science funding initiative

“This is another year, where AWR managed to support important research projects that will be key for the understanding of the Antarctic marine ecosystem and to contribute to the precautionary management of the Antarctic krill fishery”.,” said Dr. Rodolfo Werner, AWR Scientific Advisor, and Board member.

In 2017, Aker BioMarine announced its commitment to support the AWR with USD$ 200,000 annually for five years. This funding secures AWR’s work on promoting and facilitating research on the Antarctic ecosystem.

“We are in the krill fishery for the long-run and on a constant mission to take care of the ecosystem in which we harvest from. Ensuring that there is enough science and knowledge about the Antarctic marine ecosystem is essential to our business and why AWR is so important to us” said Matts Johansen, CEO at Aker BioMarine.

The sixth call for proposals is now open

The sixth call for proposals was launched during the 2019 CCAMLR meeting. For 2020 AWR is looking for research projects that prioritize the following:

1.        Krill biology and ecology to inform krill fishery management

2.        Krill-Predator-Fishery Interaction

3.        Supporting risk assessment framework for krill fishery management

4.        Cutting edge science to monitor krill for fishery management

Closing date for AWR’s 6th Call for proposals is March 27, 2020

Dr. Rodolfo Werner presenting the granted projects for 2019 and launching the AWR 6th call for proposals

Identifying core foraging areas of humpback whales in the Antarctic peninsula

Did you know that humpback whales feed in areas and times outside of previously studied krill predators around the Antarctic Peninsula?

-We hope that our findings represent a first step in establishing a long-term monitoring program of baleen whales around that Antarctic Peninsula that can yield dynamic and inter-annual information on the needs of baleen whales as they relate to prey distribution and abundance.  This information is critical to the management and conservation of baleen whales, krill predators, and the functioning of the Antarctic marine ecosystem, says Ari Friedlaender of the University of Santa Cruz who has completed this AWR supported study.

 In order to effectively and appropriately manage how human activity impacts the Antarctic marine ecosystem we need to understand both the behavior of humans and the animals that are potentially impacted.  Around the Antarctic Peninsula, a growing commercial krill fishery is focusing its effort on smaller areas and periods later in the Antarctic summer than it has traditionally operated.  While there is considerable information on the foraging ranges of land-based krill predators (including fur seals and penguins), a lack of information exists for the largest krill predators in the region, humpback whales.  Based on previous work, we have learned that the distribution of humpback whales largely reflects that of krill across broad spatial and temporal scales.  

With support from the AWR, the study has leveraged a large existing data set of long-term satellite tag data from humpback whales that we previously collected and developed a suite of analytical techniques to 1) better determine how the movement patterns and behavior of whales changes throughout the Antarctic foraging season, and 2) determine the amount of overlap between the commercial krill fishery and humpback whale foraging areas.  The latter was also assessed to better understand how this overlap changes throughout the feeding season.

 The study finds that the core foraging areas for humpback whales change dramatically throughout the feeding season and clear overlap between these areas and where the commercial krill fishery currently operates.The amount of overlap appears to increase from beginning to end of summer, with the later parts of the season containing the highest potential for overlap.This occurs in large part in areas and times that are outside of feeding ranges of previously studied krill predators.

Modelling the movement of Antarctic krill into and around the South Orkney Islands region

An newly completed AWR funded research project by Sally Thorpe, British Antarctic Survey, provides greater understanding of the movement of krill into, and within, the South Orkneys region, and may aid management of the krill fishery

The South Orkney Islands region is a key area for Antarctic krill. Consistently high densities of krill support a variety of krill-eating predators, such as penguins and seals, and are targeted by krill fishing operations, so it is essential to understand what affects the distribution of krill in this region.

Thorpe and colleagues did this using a number of model studies. Models enable them to simulate the transport of krill by ocean currents, and by including some basic behaviour strategies of krill in the model, namely diel vertical migration and the use of the sea ice habitat, we can see how the patterns of movement are affected by krill behaviour. There is large variability in the physical environment in this region – in the ocean currents and the seasonal distribution of sea ice – and the model studies allowed us to investigate the impact that this variability has on the movement of krill.

The research has given a better understanding of what determines the distribution of krill around the South Orkneys.

We now know more about the variability in the transport of krill to the South Orkneys region and the impact that the behaviour strategies of krill can have on this. Krill that spend time in close association with the sea ice, either for feeding or refuge from predators for example, have different transport pathways than krill that don’t spend time close to the sea ice.

We also now have a greater knowledge of the processes that bring krill onto the South Orkney plateau, and the movement and retention of krill on the plateau, with the model results suggesting that the local transport and retention of krill are strongly influenced by winds over the South Orkneys region.

Acknowledgements

Funding by the Antarctic Wildlife Research Fundfor ‘Modelling the Movement of Antarctic Krill: the importance of retention, dispersal and behaviour for krill distribution’ was awarded to Sally Thorpe, Emma Young, Eugene Murphy (all British Antarctic Survey, UK), Olav Rune Godø and Angelika Renner (both Institute of Marine Research, Norway).

Modelling studies were performed on the British Antarctic Survey high performance computing facilities. The krill movement models used output from the NEMO 1/12° ocean-sea ice model, made available by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, and from a fine-scale South Orkneys regional model developed by Emma Young that was funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Natural Environment Research Council, and was run on the UK supercomputing facility, ARCHER.

Antarctic krill Euphausia superba can live for up to 5 years and grow to 6 cm in length. Image: Simon Wright, British Antarctic Survey

Map of the South Orkney Islands region.The colour scale shows the depth of the ocean from the GEBCO 2014 global dataset. Image: Sally Thorpe, British Antarctic Survey

How many model krill does it take to examine the movement of krill in the South Orkney Islands region?The answer, at least in our model study, is a lot – we simulated the movement of over 21 million krill for this project. Image: Sally Thorpe, Emma Young, British Antarctic Survey

AWR launched their 5th Call for Proposals at CCAMLR

Photo: Members of AWR’s Science Advisory Group; Dr. Christopher Jones, Dr. Phil Trathan, Dr. Mercedez Santos, Dr. So Kawaguchi, d Dr. Rodolfo Werner (AWR Scientific Advisor and Board member), Dr. Polly Penhale

On Wednesday October 24th, AWR launched its 5th call for proposals, and presented the two new research projects that received grants this year.

Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund (AWR) announced the winners of the call for proposals 2018. The selected projects are focusing on the role of fish in the Scotia Sea food web and on the estimation of krill biomass using new acoustic modeling. 

“The funding is vital to continue with scientific research and to ensure the long-term health of the ecosystem. Only through a better understanding of the role of Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean can we fully protect the animals that feed on krill and ensure precautionary fishery management,” said Claire Christian, the Chair of AWR. 

The two granted research projects will focus on the following scientific research areas:

1.    Accurate krill biomass estimation using spatiotemporal acoustic target strength modeling.

This project aims at improving the accuracy of krill biomass estimates using observations of the material properties of krill coupled with numerical models that describe how individual krill and krill swarms scatter sound.

This project will reduce bias and improve accuracy in krill biomass estimates. Using a combination of field observations and modeling, the project will improve our understanding of the internal and acoustic properties of krill under different spatiotemporal conditions and frame these in terms of implications for krill biomass estimates.

2.    The role of fish in the Scotia Sea food web.

The analysis will address important uncertainties, such as the degree of myctophid predation on early life stages of krill. Improved understanding of temporal and spatial variability in krill consumption by fish is key information required for The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and their risk assessment and interpretation of CEMP data.

This analysis will provide a significant step forward in our understanding of the trophic roles of fish in Antarctic ecosystems and the potential for interactions with krill predators and the krill fishery.

“After 4 years, AWR has become a great and respected initiative by CCAMLR Members, making important scientific contributions for the management of the Antarctic krill fishery,” said Dr. Rodolfo Werner, AWR Scientific Advisor, and Board member.

Aker BioMarine renews it commitment to AWR

Last year, Aker BioMarine announced its commitment to support the Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund (AWR) with USD 1 million (EUR 830.000) over the next five years. The funding will secure AWR’s work on promoting and facilitating research on the Antarctic ecosystem.

“We are of the understanding that the best way to ensure the future of the fishery is to take care of the ecosystem in which we fish. Ensuring that there is enough scientific evidence to support the sustainable harvest of krill is fundamental to our business and so is AWR,” said Matts Johansen, CEO at Aker BioMarine.

The fifth call for proposals is now open

The fifth call for proposals is was launched during the meeting. For the 2019 edition, AWR is looking for research projects that will contribute to a better understand of krill biology and ecology, and the overlap of flying seabirds with krill fisheries. 

Closing date fro AWR’s 5th Call for proposals is April 19, 2019.

Welcoming the new chair of the SAG

During the 2018 CCAMLR meetings, AWR expressed gratitude to Dr. Phil Trathan (UK) for his work as chair of the AWR Scientific Advisory Group and Dr. Polly Penhale (USA) as a member of this group. So Kawaguchi was announced new chair of the Science Advisory Group (SAG) replacing Phil Trathan.

Mr. Kawaguchi is a Principal Research Scientist of the Australia Antarctic Division and leads the Australian krill research program. His research focuses on various aspects of Antarctic krill biology and ecology, including studies into climate change impacts on krill, with strong interests in krill fishery management in the Southern Ocean. So is the current Convener of the CCAMLR Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management.

Dr. Rodolfo Werner together with Dr. Phil Trathna and Dr. Polly Penhale.

Pictures from the meeting. Dr. Rodolfo Werner to the right, board member and Scientific Advisor to AWR.