Associations between baleen whales and their prey in the northern Scotia Arc

南乔治亚州位于亚南极，是海洋生物多样性的热点地区，历史上曾是现代捕鲸的中心，当地有17万头鲸鱼被捕杀。一个世纪后，以磷虾为食的座头鲸再次成为南乔治亚州的常见景象。南乔治亚州是南极磷虾的热点和重点渔区，每年由美国海洋局(https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/poets-wcb/).)对其特征进行监测磷虾是关键物种，根据它们的年龄/大小、一天的时间和位置形成不同大小和形状的群体。与其他南大洋地区相比，该地区的磷虾也有一些独特的特征，包括以较大体型动物为主。与积极的声学调查一起收集的新的鲸鱼目击数据集，为评估一个关键的磷虾渔业区的鲸鱼和磷虾之间的空间相互作用提供了机会，该区域对鲸鱼也具有国际意义。有没有最能预测鲸鱼存在的猎物群特征(深度、大小、类型、位置)？这些指标在大陆架和近海水域之间是否存在差异？该项目将产生关于鲸鱼和磷虾之间的空间联系的新数据，以及对北斯科舍弧鲸鱼最重要的磷虾特征。

Sub-Antarctic South Georgia is a marine biodiversity hotspot, and was historically an epicentre of modern whaling, with >170,000 whales killed locally. A century later, krill-feeding humpback whales have become a common sight at South Georgia again. South Georgia is a hotspot and key fishery area for Antarctic krill, characteristics of which are annually monitored by BAS (https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/poets-wcb/). Krill are keystone species, forming swarms of different sizes and shapes depending on their age/size, time of day and location. Krill in this region also have some unique characteristics compared to other Southern Ocean areas, including a predominance of larger-sized animals. New whale sighting datasets, collected alongside active acoustic surveys, provide an opportunity to assess the spatial interactions between whales and krill in a key krill fishery area, also an area of international significance for whales. Are there prey swarm aspects (depth, size, type, location) that most strongly predict whale presence? Do these vary between shelf and offshore waters? This project will generate new data on the spatial associations between whales and krill, and krill characteristics that are most important for whales in the northern Scotia Arc.