H-1 



1. INTRODUCTION 



1.1 Background 



1.1.1 Historical background 



In recent years the world has been witnessing a renewed interest in the living resources of 

 the Southern Ocean. Notable among these resources are marine mammals (whales and seals), 

 krill (primarily Euphausia superba), fishes, squids, spiny lobsters, crabs and seaweeds (Fig 1). 

 For hundreds of years the cold waters of the Northern Hemisphere have provided the bulk of 

 the world's fish catch. Attention is now being focused on the development and exploitation of 

 the resources of the tropical and Antarctic waters. There is little doubt that compared with the 

 areas of conventional/historical fish production, the Antarctic resources are indeed enormous. 

 The magnitude of these resources and their distribution in the Southern Ocean have been 

 discussed by El-Sayed (1975). As an indication of the richness of one resource, krill, some 

 fishery experts have speculated that 100 million tons of krill could be taken annually without 

 depleting krill stocks. This figure is slightly less than double the 1973 world fish and shellfish 

 catch. A number of countries are now engaged in the exploration of these living resources while 

 several others are planning their future exploitation. 



Concern over the need for proper management and conservation of Antarctic marine 

 resources has been voiced by members of the scientific community and national/international 

 agencies and organizations. We are mindful of the tragedies that have befallen the CaUfornia 

 sardines, the Peruvian anchovies and the Antarctic baleen whales. The concern of the scientists 

 for the conservation of these resources also stems from the fact that we do not have adequate 

 information concerning the stocks of these resources. Despite past research activities we have 

 only very rough estimates of krill stocks. We have virtually no estimates of the abundance and 

 biomass of fish populations in the Antarctic, and we know almost next to nothing about 

 Antarctic squids. Yet, effective conservation and management depend on a continuing fiow of 

 data and information regarding these resources. 



The problem is further complicated when we consider the structure of the Antarctic 

 ecosystem and the complex interactions between the seals, whales, sea birds, penguins and 

 fishes, all competing for food which consists mainly of krill. And since krill is the key species of 

 the Antarctic ecosystem, it is not difficult to visuaHze that its unwise exploitation could trigger 

 disastrous changes throughout that ecosystem. 



1 .1 .2 History of establishing SCAR/SCOR Group of Specialists on Living Resources of the 

 Southern Ocean 



As detailed in Section 4, several international bodies have interests in the living resources of 

 the Southern Ocean. Of these organizaUons, SCAR has played a key role. In August 1972 

 SCAR established a subcommittee of the Biology Working Group on the Marine Living 

 Resources of the Southern Ocean. The charge of the subcommittee was to assess the present 

 state of knowledge of the Antarctic marine ecosystem and to stimulate investigations of the 

 ecology and population dynamics of the organisms at different trophic levels. The 

 subcommittee held its first meeting in May 1974 at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 

 conjunction with the SCOR/SCAR Polar Oceans Conference. At this meeting the sub- 

 committee developed a series of recommendations, one of which stated: 



Because of the significant role played by krill in the Antarctic marine 

 ecosys'em, and because of our concern for the wise management of krill 



