Prince Edward Islands - Ecology

Scientific data has been collected from the islands since they were annexed by South Africa in 1947/8 and is ongoing today. Extensive research has been conducted on the land based breeding populations (seals and seabirds) and a comprehensive dataset exists. Oceanographic surveys have resulted in an understanding of the hydrodynamics and plankton community, and extensive benthic surveys have quantified the invertebrates in the near shore habitat. However, data on the fish fauna in particular are severely lacking with a single fishery independent trawl survey having been conducted in 2001. No mesopelagic sampling has been carried out, so while the importance of the two dominant components of this community, the Myctophid fish and the cephalopods, has been clearly demonstrated through diet studies of the top predators at the islands, no quantitative data exists.