Progress report of the CEMP Special Fund overwinter penguin tracking project

We provide a brief update on the progress of our project “Tracking the overwinter habitat use of krill-dependent predators from Subarea 48.1”. The project was initiated with support from the CEMP Special Fund in 2015/16. With the assistance of the Secretariat, we purchased 150 ARGOS-based satellite transmitters and successfully deployed 130 instruments during the 2016/17 breeding season at sites including King George Island, Livingston Island, Cierva Cove, and Galindez Island. Twenty tags intended for juvenile Adélie penguins were not deployed due to logistical limitations (10 tags) and failed delivery (10 tags).  Data collection continues for one juvenile penguin and 50 adult penguins as of 13 June 2017. In total, we collected usable data from 118 deployments. Data indicate high utilization of coastal zones among gentoo penguins, while chinstrap penguins and Adélie juveniles exhibited larger-scale movements into pelagic areas that span from the Ross Sea to the South Sandwich Islands.