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Abstract: Following seals and baleen whales prior to the 1970s, demersal fish stocks were depleted off the South Shetland Islands by intensive industrial fishing during the late 1970s to early 1980s. Little has been reported since about how these stocks have fared, after international agreement closed this fishery in 1990. We report changes in size and abundance of the commercially exploited Notothenia rossii and Gobionotothen gibberifrons relative to the ecologically similar but unexploited Notothenia coriiceps at Potter Cove, South Shetland Islands, over a 28-yr period, 1983–2010. N. rossii abundance declined from 1983 to 1991, and an increase in mean size during 1983–1984 is consistent with weak cohorts during preceding years. Modal age changed from 2–3 to 6–7 yr. Length data of G. gibberifrons, available from 1986, exhibited a similar pattern, showing a decrease until 1991–1992. After a period of relative stability (1992–1994), a sharp increase in length and a continued decline in relative abundance indicated low recruitment. The length–frequency distribution of unexploited N. coriiceps throughout the whole period showed no change in modal size or mean length of the fish. We relate these patterns to the fishery and suggest that a further two decades will lapse before these stocks recover. Using the South Shetland fisheries as an example, current management rules for Southern Ocean fisheries, deemed to be precautionary and disallowing depletion beyond which a stock can recover in 2–3 decades, may be unrealistic in an ocean profoundly altered by numerous stock depletions and rapid climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The dietary composition of juvenile Trematomus newnesi, trawled at Potter Cove, South Shetland Islands, in the summers 2004–2005 and 2005–2006 was analysed using frequency of occurrence ( F%) and dietary coefficient Q (%) methods. The samples consisted exclusively of immature specimens in the range 4–15.4 cm (total length) and are complementary to those of larger fish from the same site, including adults, which were analysed in previous work. Benthic-demersal organisms such as gammaridean amphipods and harpacticoid copepods were the main (coefficient Q) and most frequent ( F%) prey. The importance of the smaller and larger main prey diminished and increased, respectively, during ontogeny. Pelagic krill, being negligible in the diet of the small and medium size fish categories, became secondary food, but only for fish larger than 12 cm. Other taxonomic groups occurred scarcely and constituted occasional food. They were mostly benthic, such as gastropods, bivalves, isopods, cumaceans, and algae, with the exception of an insignificant number of pelagic ostracods and calanoid copepods. Unlike the more pelagic/planktivorous mode of life known for late juvenile-adult stages of T. newnesi, including cryopelagy, present results indicate that early juvenile fish remain sheltered among macroalgae beds preying on the associated community of demersal-benthic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diet analysis of the Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides, trawled in the South Georgia Islands area in March–April 1996, was carried out by frequency of occurrence ( F%) and coefficient “ Q” (%) methods. The samples consisted chiefly of immature specimens, with predominant length ranges of 30–70 cm (TL). Fish was by far the main food on the shelves of Shag Rocks and South Georgia, accounting for about 70% of prey. Krill appeared as secondary food, although its importance was overestimated by the frequency of occurrence method. Cephalopods and mysids were infrequent in the stomachs, and only at Shag Rocks and South Georgia, respectively. Lepidonotothen kempi, Champsocephalus gunnari and Chaenocephalus aceratus constituted the main fish prey and their variability between Shag Rocks and South Georgia depended on their local abundance. The large proportion of fish exhibiting stomachs full or close to fullness (together 62%) suggests that feeding intensity of the species was high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]