Live crustaceans to be flown from Antarctica to Australia for climate change research

Small live crustaceans will be flown from Antarctica to Australia for the first time as part of an ambitious climate change research project.

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) will fly 10,000 krill from Casey Station, one of three permanent bases in Antarctica, to its Australian research headquarters on the island state of Tasmania.

Robb Clifton, operations manager of the AAD, said it would be the first time such an attempt was made.

"We've never flown live krill to Australia," he said. "We're confident that we're thinking through the issues and planning well - of course the proof will be in the pudding when we try it."

Clifton said the flight, which is four and a half hours, involved significant logistical challenges.

"We've got to make sure we oxygenate the water enough before the krill fly, and then (put in place) some thermal sheets and barriers to make sure that the water doesn't freeze on the journey up to the runway and on the way home," he told the Australain Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday.

Rob King, a marine biologist with the AAD, said bringing the krill to Australia means complex research projects that were not possible in Antarctica could be completed.

King said the initial focus would be studying the impact of climate change on krill eggs.

"We can take the animals from the environment and bring them almost instantaneously to a high-tech laboratory so that gives us much more opportunity to run powerful research on live animals," King said.

King said the project would open the door to international researchers to travel to Tasmania to study live krill.

"People can literally fly in from anywhere in the world and do research for maybe a week on live Antarctic krill and then head back to their research organisations," he said.

The flight is scheduled to take place in early December but is dependent on the weather. Endit