Working with living krill - the people and the places

• Published in: Marine and freshwater behaviour and physiology Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 207 - 228
• Main Authors: Ross, Robin M., Quetin, Langdon B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01.12.2003
• Subjects: Antarctic; Field studies; History; Holding; Krill; Laboratory studies; Technology; Transporting
• ISSN: 1023-6244; 1029-0362
• DOI: 10.1080/10236240310001623385

The fascination of Antarctic scientists with Antarctic krill and their capabilities has a long and varied history, and prompted many scientists to maintain and manipulate krill under laboratory conditions. Starting in the Discovery era with Mackintosh at the King Edward Point labs on South Georgia, 1930, scientists have collected krill from sailing vessels, small boats, inflatable zodiacs and large ice-breaking vessels. Krill have been maintained in small and large jars, deep rectangular tanks, large round tanks and in flow-through and recycling systems. They have been maintained both on board research vessels and in laboratories, in flowing seawater systems at ambient conditions and in temperature-controlled environmental rooms. A few researchers have transported living krill back to their home laboratories, for example tropical laboratories in Japan (Murano) and Australia (Ikeda), temperate laboratories (Nicol) in Australia, a northern European laboratory in Germany (Marschall) and a sunny maritime laboratory in California (Ross and Quetin). The goals have been varied: short-term experiments to understand in situ physiological rates, long-term experiments to test the effects of manipulations or controlled changes in environmental conditions, and behavioral responses. We take you on a brief historical tour as we trace the lineage of modern day research on living Antarctic krill.