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Prawns (Chorismus antarcticus) caught by mesh traps at the Vestfold Hills

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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This record describes the collection of marine fauna sampled from coastal areas of the Vestfold Hills in 1999. The project was undertaken to compile morphometric data on Weddell seal prey species. Benthic prawns i.e. Chorismus antarcticus and Notocrangon antarcticus, are common Weddell prey species at the Vestfold Hills. We fished for prawns using mesh traps (40 x 20 x 20 cm3). The traps were set at Magnetic Island in May, and in Ellis Fjord in December. The site near Magnetic Island was chosen when the fast-ice fractured enabling the gear to be set in natural tracts of open water. The site in Ellis Fjord was chosen on the basis of published information regarding bathymetry and the range of depths inhabited by prawn species. We waited until December to sample in Ellis Fjord so that the fishing hole did not refreeze. Prawns were caught only in Ellis Fjord and only when the traps were deployed open i.e. with zips on the doors to get the catch out left undone. Approximately 50 prawns of various sizes were caught over three days at the same location, 200 m east of the crossing at Ellis Narrows. The catch has been stored whole in the Australian Antarctic Division freezer in Hobart. Bycatch included amphipods and Notothenid fish at Magnetic Island, and echinoderms, holothurians and Notothenid fish in Ellis Fjord. Some of the bycatch were retained and are stored frozen with the prawns. The linked dataset contains the measurements of length, mass, carapace length and sex (juvenile, male, female) of the prawn catch. All of the prawns were Chorismus antarcticus. The adult females were brooding eggs. The best fit linear regressions were y = 0.3529x - 2.4824, (R2 = 0.9504) for carapace length to predict body mass, and y = 3.5267x + 4.5846 (R2 = 0.9544) for carapace length to body length. The associated URLs contain all of the data, including spreadsheet of data, a scatterplot of the length mass relationship, and a mass frequency histogram of the catch. The fields in this dataset are: Chorismus ID carapace length (mm) body length (mm) mass (g) sex

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Prawns (Chorismus antarcticus) caught by mesh traps at the Vestfold Hills
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/a2f14171-71d8-4c95-a1c2-79569edc2cc5
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
metadata@aad.gov.au
Reference Period 25/08/1999 - 28/08/1999
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    78.0,
    -69.0
  ],
  "type": "Point"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Prawns (Chorismus antarcticus) caught by mesh traps at the Vestfold Hills". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/prawns-chorismus-antarcticus-caught-by-mesh-traps-at-the-vestfold-hills