Mesoscale abundance of fish in a ‘box’ west of Elephant Island

Germany, in close collaboration with the United States Antarctic Marine Living (U.S. AMLR) Program, conducted an investigation of an 7 x 10 nm ‘box’ between 100 and 300 m depth to the west of Elephant Island (Subarea 48.1) in order to study the meso – scale abundance of demersal finfish species. Diversity in the box was relatively low. The most abundant species were Gobionotothen gibberifrons and Champsocephalus gunnari. Their distribution was very patchy even on a meso-scale. Concentrations of both species were found in a comparatively small band primarily along the 200 m isobath (160–240 m). Length distribution changed with fishing depth in C. gunnari, where larger fish were found predominantly in the stratum 200– 300 m.