The brief results of the research of antarctic crabs in the Pacific sector of Antarctic

Abstract

Russian research into the possibility for fishing of Antarctic crabs was started in 2010 in the South part of Atlantic Ocean (Anosov, 2012). Subsequently appeared the idea to study the possibility of crab fishing in the Pacific sector of Antarctica, where no one had previously conducted such studies, but it was known about by-catch of potentially commercial species of crabs to the longline (Anosov, 2015). The realization is came in the season of 2018/2019, when the first stage of the research program was completed. The purpose was to establish the species composition and the primary determination of the distribution of crabs in the area 88.2 and in the area 88.3. Crab fishing was carried out with the help of conical pots, which were set in 120 pieces in order. The average stagnation time was 32 hours 42 minutes. 3 species of crabs were occurred. Only one can be considered as potentially commercial species – Neolithodes yaldwini. As a result of these studies, data on the species composition, morphological parameters, bathymetric and spatial distribution of Antarctic species of crabs of the family Lithodidae were obtained for the first time.