Abstract
Results of observations of marine mammals’ occurrence during cruise 79 of the R/V “Akademik Mstislav Keldysh” in January, February, and early March 2020 are presented. We recorded 2140 marine mammals, 1990 of them were identified to the species level, and a total of 20 species were recorded. During the second and third parts of the trip, the most numerous marine mammals were: Antarctic fur seal, Humpback and Fin whales. It was revealed that the observed occurrence of animals in the ocean is related to a number of environmental parameters (general weather parameters, ice characteristics) and weakly related to the parameters of observation: visibility, ship speed and the difference in detection degree between one animal and groups of animals. The occurrence of the three most numerous animals positively correlated with the depths distribution along the ship route. This suggests that sea depth is important for these animals. Spatial distributions of Antarctic fur seals in January and February in the studied Antarctic sea area were generally similar to each other; distribution of Humpback and Fin whales varied from January to February: a large number of both species in February started to be concentrated in the area south of the South Shetland Islands. The type of distribution of Fin whales suggests that this species is not restricted to food supply. No competition for food has been noticed in this species and in the Humpback whales.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude to echo sounder managers Dmitry I. Frey and Alexander V. Gavrikov, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS for offering us the detailed data on depths. Many thanks to the “Mercury detachment”: Maryina E.M., Rudykh Ya.I., head-Kalinchuk V.V. of V.I. Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute, Far Eastern Branch of RAS, who managed weather station Davis Vantage Pro2 and offered us the weather data.
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Kharitonov, S.P. et al. (2021). Spatial Distribution, Species Composition, and Number of Marine Mammals in the Argentine Basin, Drake Passage, East of Antarctic Peninsula, and Powell Basin in January–March 2020. In: Morozov, E.G., Flint, M.V., Spiridonov, V.A. (eds) Antarctic Peninsula Region of the Southern Ocean. Advances in Polar Ecology, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78927-5_25
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