One of the places I am going to visit this season is the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic Peninsula is interesting because it has experienced dramatic increases in temperature and declines in sea-ice over the past half-century. These warming trends are thought to have lead to decreases in Antarctic krill, a key prey species of penguins, seals and whales. In addition, an expanding fishery harvests as much as 202,346 tons of krill annually from this same region. This krill is used to make health products like “Krill Oil” for human consumption as well as for fish food in commercial aquaculture like farmed salmon.

    These impacts are believed to have led to dramatic declines in populations of Adelie and chinstrap penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula. However, at the same time populations of closely related Gentoo penguin have increased. Interestingly, the summer diets and breeding success of all three species is similar and has not declined in response to recent changes in climate and krill. Therefore it is thought that conditions during the winter when penguins are away from their breeding colonies are mostly likely driving these species’ differing population trends. Unfortunately, while the breeding biology and summer foraging ecology of  these penguins has been well studied, little is known about their distributions and diets during the winter.