Science based management of krill suffers from limitation of time-space information in distribution dynamics. Similarly, the industry burns unnecessary amounts of oil in long range searching of fishable biomass due to lack of density distribution information. In this paper, we demonstrate that new drone technology now available through the Sailbuoy concept, offers new opportunity for an industry – science partnership in collecting environment and krill distribution data independent of vessel availability.
The Sailbuoy concept has demonstrated robustness and reliability under other rough conditions and will be tailored to support data for Feedback management and for a more environmentally efficient fishery in the Antarctic. The system will be equipped with echosounder and environmental sensors and will survey krill hotspots (in areas that are fished and unfished) and feed science and industry with data in near real time. The system may also collect data from moorings through underwater communication using an acoustic modem. We plan the first test in 2019 and it is the goal of this paper to establish a productive interaction with potential users to ensure that the tailored system includes most of the users’ requirement.