Potentially commercial invertebrates on Ob Bank: Moroteuthis ingens (Oegopsida) and Paralomis aculeata (Anomura) (Division 58.4.4)

The cephalopods of the Antarctic are supposed to have a very high biomass level However, they have not been fished nor any fishable aggregations of them detected to date in the CCAMLR Convention Area. The squid Moroteuthis ingens has been constantly present in bottom trawl catches on Ob Bank during aimed fishery for Lepidonotothen squamifrons. At maximum, the proportion of squid in the total catches exceeded half of the catch, reaching 1310 kg per hour of trawling. All the squid were in prespawning state. The squid aggregation was apparently composed of mating individuals. At has been concluded that target searching and fishing for Moroteuthis ingens with a midwater trawl over the seamaunts in the sub-Antarctic may be expected to bring forth good commercial yields.
The crabs (craboids) of the Antarctic are now an object of intense interest for the scientific and fishery organizations of the member countries of the CCAMLR, especially in view of the development of experimental fishing by a U.S. vessel on the shelf of South Georgia. The biology and the environmental aspects of the life of craboids in the Antarctic are but insufficiently known. The Anomura faune on Ob Bank is represented by a single species, Paralomis aculeata. The craboids have been constantly found in bottom trawl catches during target fishery for Lepidonotothen squamifrons, the frequency of their occurrence being 25 to 30%. Considering, that a routine bottom trawl was used with the footrope so designed that there was little probability of the benthic animals (craboids included) being captured, a conclusion has been made of the possibile sufficiently high abundance of Paralomis aculeata population on Ob Bank.