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    Biomass estimates of Antarctic krill based on survey conducted by the Chinese fishing vessel FV Fu Rong Hai during the 2019 Area 48 survey

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    Document Number:
    SG-ASAM-2019/07
    Author(s):
    X. Wang, X. Yu, X. Zhao, J. Zhang, G. Fan, J. Zhu and Y. Ying
    Submitted By:
    Dr Xinliang Wang
    Approved By:
    Dr Xianyong Zhao (China)
    Abstract

    As a contribution to the joint effort on the large-scale international synoptic krill survey of Area 48 (2019 Area 48 survey), the Chinese krill fishing vessel F/V Fu Rong Hai conducted the acoustic survey around the South Shetland Islands and the Elephant Islands in the Subarea 48.1 from 5th to 10th February 2019. Implementation and preliminary results on the estimates of krill biomass density were presented to the WG-EMM 2019 meeting. After the meeting, the acoustic data were processed further using the swarm-based method to identify krill backscatter as recommended by CCAMLR. Updated analysis shown that mean krill biomass density was 80.7 g m-2 with a CV of 13.6% in the survey area. However, the krill biomass estimates might be updated pending on the outcome of krill length clustering analysis and discussion on the methodology during this SG-ASAM meeting.