H-53 



PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME 



3. Whaling ships. 



There are still whaling vessels catching baleen and Sperm whales in the Antarctic. In 

 addition to the information on whales that can be obtained from the activities of these vessels, 

 they provide excellent opportunities for studying the animals eaten by the whales. No present 

 fishing or research gear is as effective in sampUng squid as the Sperm Whale. High priority 

 should be given to making arrangements with the whaling companies for squid biologists or 

 technicians to accompany their ships and to collect squid material. Biological observations 

 should also be made of other animals (krill, fish, etc) eaten by whales. It would be particularly 

 useful to determine whether the krill eaten by whales are similar in, for example, size or age to 

 those caught by trawlers. 



4. Icebreakers. 



Much of the biological activity in the Southern Ocean occurs under the pack ice and to 

 reach a proper understanding of the ecosystem one must take this into account. There is thus 

 an urgent need for biological and also physical and chemical sampling beneath the ice. This 

 work could best be accomplished by an icebreaker, fully equipped for oceanographic work and 

 capable of biological sampling in deep water. 



5. Supply ships. 



Although constrained by time, the supply ships have great potential for adding to our 

 understanding of the position of the polar front due to their widely spaced and fairly regular 

 tracks. They can further assist by collecting data on temperature, salinity and chlorophyll. In 

 this way, the supply ships can provide a broad network of ground truth for remote sensing by 

 the NIMBUS-G Coastal Zone Colour Scanner, which will be providing simultaneous coverage 

 over a broader area (See Section 2.10). It is recommended that the national Antarctic agencies 

 operating supply ships be invited to take the major responsibihty for this part of the BIOMASS 

 programme. It would be useful if a working group were formed of those scientists from each 

 national Antarctic agency responsible for the programme, representatives from the NIMBUS— G 

 remote sensing team, and individuals experienced in continuous monitoring and processing of 

 surface data. 



The second role which supply ships, and icebreakers, could play in the BIOMASS 

 programme is the deployment of drifting sensors in satellite communication with shore stations 

 across the Southern Ocean. The technology exists for buoy and satellite communication 

 (Creswell, 1976), for biomass estimates in the water column (Beamish, 1971), and for 

 measurements of turbidity or transparency. A potentially powerful means could therefore be 

 developed within the one buoy assembly for continuous and relatively inexpensive monitoring 

 of krill swarms. It is recommended that the development of this technology be supported by 

 BIOMASS and implemented as soon as possible. 



The supply ships, and particulariy the icebreakers, can further contribute to the BIOMASS 

 programme by making observations on plankton over a period of days and possibly weeks 

 around and in the pack ice. The Japanese supply ship Fuji is currently carrying out such a 

 programme off Syowa station. These observations should be integrated with tliose of a similar 

 nature carried out on platforms of floating ice from the shore stations. 



3.2.2 Recommendations 



1. That national agencies responsible for the operation of support cruises for scientific 

 bases on the Antarctic continent be invited to execute a programme of underway 

 surface observations of temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll in the Southern Ocean, 

 together with the collection of XBT and underway echo traces from the upper 100 m; 

 and that a representative from the NlMBUS-G CZCS survey be invited to join tlie 

 working party to provide liaison with the remote sensing survey of surface properties. 



