Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

AEBAR 2012: Appendices: Past projects
BIODIVERSITY continued
Project Code Project Title Specific Objectives Status Citation/s
ZBD2005-03 Tangaroa ross sea voyage 1. To test the feasibility of obtaining estimates of demersal fish relative
abundance using cameras with and without flood lights in areas of high
importance for the Ross Sea toothfish fishery (principally 800-1200 m).
2. To utilise deepwater camera transects, supported by other direct sampling
methods, to characterise the relative abundance, distribution, and diversity of
demersal fish species (assuming Objective 1 yields satisfactory results) and of
benthic macro-invertebrates, and to examine relationships between demersal
fishes and benthic habitats/communities. Camera transects will be deployed
opportunistically, with focus on the following high-priority areas (in order of high
to low priority) wherever possible:
i) Areas of the continental shelf break at depths of high importance for the
toothfish fishery (principally 800-1200 m but also 600-800m & 1200-1500 m if
time permits),
ii) Shallow (50-200 m) water in the immediate vicinity of the Balleny Islands;
iii) Deeper water in the vicinity of the Balleny Islands; iv) seamounts around and
between Scott Island and the Balleny Islands; and v) at other locations (< 600 m)
as opportunity arises (e.g. around Scott Island, western Ross Sea, south-eastern
Ross Sea).
3. To collect specimens/tissues of selected benthic and pelagic organisms with
priority in the vicinity of the Balleny Islands (and to the east/southeast, for pelagic
specimens especially Antarctic krill species) and deliver specimens to other
projects for stable isotope analysis in order to contribute to understanding of
trophic relationships.
4. To acquire a continuous acoustic survey of the water column, opportunistically
undertake species verification of acoustic marks, integrate the acoustic marks
and produce a GIS map of verified and unverified distributions of functionally
important mesopelagic species (e.g. krill, Antarctic silverfish).
5. To undertake routine identification and abundance estimates of marine
mammal and seabird species and deliver raw and GIS summarised data to other
related projects in order to generate spatially and temporally explicit population
biomass and foraging distribution estimates for top air-breathing predators in the
Ross Sea.
6. To undertake automated water sampling in order to monitor the identities and
spatial and temporal distributions of plankton in the Ross Sea region and to allow
ground-truthing of data collection from satellites (e.g. surface seawater
temperature, and chlorophyll-a concentration).
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of publication
MacDiarmid & Stewart In
Press; Mitchell & MacDiarmid
2006