Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund backs three new ecosystem science projects

The Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund awarded support to three research projects announced Oct. 21 at CCAMLR’s annual meeting in Hobart, Tasmania. The funding is meant to strengthen ecosystem science around Antarctic krill, predators and fishing activity, which matters for long-term management of the krill fishery.

Why it matters: - Antarctic krill sit at the center of the Southern Ocean food web, feeding species from fish to blue whales. - Better data on krill, predators and fishing activity can improve ecosystem-based management of the Antarctic krill fishery. - The new projects target scientific gaps that affect monitoring, conservation and future management decisions.

What happened: - The Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund awarded funding to three new research projects. - AWR announced the projects on 21 October during the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, Tasmania. - The three projects were selected from 10 proposals in AWR’s 12th Call for Proposals. - The proposals sought a combined USD 736,808.

The details: - Julie Mestre of CEBC-CNRS in France received USD 90,000 for a project on the 3D distribution of krill, whales and fishing in Subarea 48.1. - That project will map overlap between krill, whales and fishing activity in three dimensions. - Bjørn Krafft of the Institute of Marine Research in Norway received USD 94,000 for a next-generation stereo-camera system for krill length monitoring. - The stereo-camera project aims to improve scalable monitoring of krill length. - Holly Fearnbach of SR3 and Simon Fraser University in Canada received USD 36,750 for a health assessment of major krill consumers. - That project will combine body-condition and biological data to better understand major krill consumers. - Since 2015, AWR has supported research on krill biology, predator ecology, monitoring technology and interactions between the ecosystem and fishing activity. - With the 2026 awards, AWR’s portfolio now includes 29 funded projects and USD 2,004,514 in funding. - AWR’s mission is to fill critical research and monitoring gaps that can improve management of the Antarctic krill fishery. - More information is available here.

Between the lines: - The funding mix shows AWR is backing both field ecology and tools that can make future monitoring cheaper and more scalable. - The projects also reflect a broader push toward linking predator health, krill distribution and fishing pressure in one management picture. - Rodolfo Werner, AWR scientific advisor and board member, said the projects address important knowledge and monitoring needs and represent practical, independent research AWR was established to support.

What's next: - The selected teams will move ahead with the funded research. - Their results are likely to feed into future ecosystem monitoring and krill fishery management discussions. - AWR is expected to continue using its call-for-proposals process to support new Antarctic research.

The bottom line: - AWR is putting more money behind the science needed to understand how krill, predators and fishing activity interact in a changing Antarctic ecosystem.