So Kawaguchi, Steven G. Candy, Robert King, Mikio Naganobu, Stephen Nicol

Modelling growth of Antarctic krill. I. Growth trends with sex, length, season, and region

Steven G. Candy, So Kawaguchi

Modelling growth of Antarctic krill. II. Novel approach to describing the growth trajectory

Understanding Antarctic krill growth is one of the most important aspects for krill fishery management since it is one of the critical parameters used in the model used to manage the krill fishery—the largest fishery in the Southern Ocean. Krill growth is usually estimated through analysis of sequential length-frequency plots, and their growth trajectory is described using Von Bertalanffy growth models. This approach assumes the krill samples originate from the same population, but this is unlikely for an open ocean species. Instead, we developed an alternative new approach to describe krill growth trajectory using a step-growth function that combines experimental measurements of individual moulting krill freshly caught from the wild. We believe our new approach will contribute significantly to improvements in the ecosystem-based management of the krill fishery.

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