We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Norwegian Polar Institute and the University of St Andrews Knowledge and Exchange Impact Scheme, in addition to the project funders: the Institute for Marine Research (IMR), the International Association of Antarctic Tourist Operators (IAATO), and the Hurtigruten A/S.

We are Kalliopi Gkikopoulou and Lucía Martina Martín López, two post-graduate researchers from the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews working as Marine Mammal and Seabird Observers on board an Antarctic tourist vessel, the Midnatsol.

We are working as part of a project studying interactions between predator and prey in the Southern Ocean.

Through this blog we will guide you through our adventure in the Southern Ocean and we will explain the basics for  quantifying animal abundance and habitat use to establish a sustainable management strategy for the krill fisheries in the Southern Ocean that minimises impacts on krill-dependent predators.

If you want to learn about this and about the importance of your actions to the conservation of remote and pristine environments such as Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and the animals relying on them, follow us on this South Adventure.