Updating knowledge of successful egg and larval transport of Dissostichus mawsoni in the East Antarctic region: assessing three potential spawning and recruitment scenarios using satellite derived datasets

This paper updates the knowledge of egg and larval transport of Dissostichus mawsoni in the East Antarctic region as a background document of the research plan for the multi-Member research on the Dissostichus mawsoni exploratory fishery in East Antarctica (Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2) from 2018/2019 to 2021/2022. Using particle tracking technique, this experiment assessed successful transport pathways and percentage of egg and larvae released from the Banzare Bank and continental slopes to identify which recruitment scenario hypothesized by the CCAMLR scientific report appears to be in action in the East Antarctic region. The result of this paper suggested that the majority of successful transport was supplied from continental slopes. Although the southeast part of the BB was the source of the successful transports, the level of successful transports was overall low. Thus, the 3rd scenario of originally hypostasized three scenarios seemed to work in the East Antarctic region. The local recirculation played an essential role to cause successful transport from continental slopes to continental shelves. In addition to this, the position of the southern branch of the ACC against sources on continental slopes was also vital to determine successful egg and larval transports.