zodtrawl 9899pal Measurements of the length frequency distributions and condition factor measurements of the krill populations in the Palmer Basin region yield information on seasonal changes in the demographics of the krill population (on/offshore movements) and in the physiological condition of the krill. In conjunction with the bioacoustics determinations of biomass the data characterize the abundance and size character of krill in this nearshore region throughout the season. Krill are collected for these measurements by SCUBA divers and with a net towed from a zodiac. Zodiac trawls and dive operations are conducted in the immediate Palmer area within 3.7 km of the station (Palmer grid; Waters and Smith, 1992.) This data set contains a record of dives and zodiac trawls to collect krill, and what was done with the catch. The following variables are recorded: Event, Tow or Dive No., Grid Location, Date, Time Begin (GMT), Fishing or Dive Time, Ice cover, total length/mature female done? (event # and number krill measured), IGR done? (event #), animals frozen for condition factor and/or chemical composition? (event # and number of individuals and/or bulks), Catch, Comments (purpose of dive; other species in catch etc.) The volume of water filtered during the tow is calculated with the information from a General Oceanics flowmeter. The planned sampling is for weekly collections of Antarctic krill, with length frequency determinations every week, growth rate experiments every 10-14 d, condition factor determinations for AC0 krill every two weeks, and samples for chemical composition three times a season. In 1998/1999 austral spring sampling was restricted to observations by SCUBA divers because of ice conditions. Post cruise, one dip net in mid-February successfully collected krill. Only one additional target tow to collect krill was attempted, with no success. Nets were deployed with a winch and A-frame from a Mark V zodiac, the Rubber Duke. For all zooplankton tows, a 1-m diameter, 500-µm mesh ring net with a cod end with 335 µm mesh was deployed. A targetted tow was performed when a krill school was detected with the 50 kHz furuno echosounder on board the Rubber Duke. Once the cod end was retrieved, krill to be used for live experiments were placed in several seawater-filled buckets or coolers, keeping densities as low as possible. On occasion krill were seen swarming around the dock at Palmer Station. These krill were collected with aquarium nets. The 9899pal season was relatively short, with a late start in mid-November, a two-week break before the annual cruise, and a 3-week post-cruise season. The persistence of high (9/10 and 10/10) pack ice cover until late December prohibited zodiac work until after the cruise, and also prevented diving in multiple locations. As a result no Antarctic krill were collected for condition factor and chemical analysis this season. Only one length frequency was done, with a catch at the dock with a dip net. Palmer LTER, krill collections ascii, comma separated variables http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/lter ~lter/data/9899pal/zodtrawl/ zodtrawl.list Robin M. Ross, Langdon B. Quetin none Robin M. Ross, Langdon B. Quetin Marine Science Institute University of California at Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 robin@icess.ucsb.edu, langdon@icess.ucsb.edu CT Shaw, J Smith Divers = D Martin, W Koslowski, L Quetin CT Shaw, J Smith RM Ross RM Ross Waters, K. J. and R. C. Smith, 1992. "Palmer LTER: A Sampling Grid for the Palmer LTER Program." Antarctic Journal of the United States 1992. Top of Form 1 Datafile Form V1.2 for describing a data file.