In the plankton samples collected with a Bongo net besides Euphausia superba the following species of the Euphausiacea were found:. £. frigida, crystallorophias, E. triacantha and T. macrura. The most aboundant and most frequently caught species was T. macrura equally distributed throughout the research area. The species E. frigida also occurred regularly though in much smaller numbers. E. triacantha occurred sporadically, mainly in the western part of the research region, and E. crystallorophias only at two stations in the Bransfield Strait. Some aspects of the biology and ecology of the mentioned above species are presented in this study.

In the investigated area, mass occurence of krill was observed in the vicinity of islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, in the waters above the shelf and shelfs slope. Small quantities of krill were found in the open oceanic waters. Immature individuals dominated close to the Antarctic Peninsula. Large, sexually mature kril dominated farther from the continent. Gravid females contributed little to the total populations. Krill of the largest size occured near the Palmer's Archipelago, and of the smallest size at the Antarctic Peninsula and the Elephant Island. It is likely that krill observed west and north of the Palmer Archipelago had been brought by currents from the Bellingshausen Sea. Krill in the Bransfield Strait originated probably from the mixing of populations carried by currents from the Weddell Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea.

In the investigated area krill occured in low abundance. It was recorded mainly above the shelf and above the continental slope close to the Palmer Archipelago and near the northern shores of Elephant Island. In the central part of the Bransfield Strait E. superba was caught in especially small quantities. In general krill of small size occurred, the size decreasing from the west to the east. Mature krill was dominan in the western part of the investigated area, whereas juveniles in the eastern part. Gravid females were caught very rarely.

Macrozooplankton was collected at 63 stations by means of a Bongo sampler in the layer from the surface to a depth of 200 m. Wet formalin volume of siphonophors, polychaetes, pteropods, copepods, amphipods, euphausiids, chaetognaths, salps, and the remaining animals was determined; the distribution of major species was presented. Low diversity in macrozooplankton composition was observed in the study area. As far as biomass was concerned, salps predominated in the whole area; they occurred in exceptionally large quantities Large amounts of krill were also observed in some areas. Besides salps and krill, other euphausiids had the greatest share in the zooplankton; they were more abundant than copepods. Macrozooplankton biomass without salps and krill was low when compared with the values known from literature.