Fish samples collected during RV Polarstern cruise PS152 (WOBEC expedition) in the Eastern Weddell Sea, Antarctica, December 2025 – January 2026

Fish were sampled at 35 stations in two main work areas: the shelf and inflow region off Kapp Norvegia, and stations around Maud Rise, at depths ranging from surface to 1,418 m.

A total of 763 specimens from 35 species were collected using longline, Agassiz trawl, pelagic net, lander traps, and Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS). Biological samples collected include white muscle, fin clips, otoliths, liver, gill, gonad, spleen, brain, blood, and whole body specimens, preserved in ethanol, snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen, or stored dry. All samples were collected by Felix C. Mark, Nils Koschnick, Christian Bock, Katharina Schienbein (AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany), Chiara Papetti (University of Padova, Italy), Jacob Reed (University of Nottingham, UK), Christopher D. Jones (NOAA, USA) and Rose Leeger (Colorado University, USA) and shipped to AWI for molecular, physiological, and age-growth analyses.