IMIS

In Austral summer 2006 sampling was carried out around the Scotia arc, including sites both sides of the Polar Front. This predominantly biological cruise took benthic samples using Agassiz Trawl, Epibenthic sledge, box core and, in the water column, water samples on a CTD rosette. The Scotia Sea is amongst the better known Antarctic regions but there have been very few comparisons of mega- and macrofauna using multiple apparatus at shelf (200 and 500 m) and slope (1000 and 1500 m) depths. The BIOPEARL I cruise sampled, where possible, the shelf and slope of the Falkland Trough, Livingstone Island, Deception Island, Elephant Island, the South Orkney Islands, Southern Thule, South Georgia and Shag Rocks. In addition several of these sites were sampled in the shallows using SCUBA. The variety of biological studies were published in a special volume of the journal Antarctic Science in 2008.