ABSTRACT
Investigations into Antarctic fish date back to the mid-
nineteenth century when James Clark Ross’s expedition to
the Southern Ocean (1839-1843) collected the first fish
specimens from Antarctic waters. Early studies were princi-
pally taxonomic and Antarctic ichthyology did not begin to
broaden to include physiological and ecological studies until
the 1950s. In most of the world’s seas, fish have been the
subject of special study because of their economic
importance. However, the lack of an indigenous population,
the harsh climate, and the opportunity to exploit stocks closer
to the markets of the world delayed the exploitation of fish
resources of the Southern Ocean. As fish stocks declined in
other parts of the world’s oceans, the possibility of the
existence of substantial exploitable stocks in the Southern
Ocean attracted the attention of fishing nations. Exploratory
fishing commenced in the early 1960s and developed into
large-scale fishing around South Georgia in the late 1960s. It
has since spread to other parts of the Southern Ocean.
