Zooplankton sampling was carried out during the first six Indian Scientific Expeditions to Antarctica (1981—1987) to estimate krill abundance in the Indian sector of the southern ocean (between 35° to 70° S and 10° to 52° E). This study aims to understand the distribution of biomass of zooplankton, especially the krill, using the data collected by net sampling techniques. Total zooplankton biomass for all the sampling stations ranged from 9 to 684 ml/1000m³ (x: 143.34±138.61 SD; n=150). Biomass data grouped by 5° latitude interval shows the presence of higher biomass (x: 191 ml/1000 m³;n = 31) in the Antarctic divergence region (between 60° to 65° S). EuphausiidEuphausia superba DANA formed a considerable component of biomass and together with eggs and larvae represented over 60% (n = 39) of mean total zooplankton-biomass in the coastal ice region. The values for population density and biomass of adult-size krill varied between 0 to 4320 individuals and 6 to 305 ml/1000 m³, respectively.

The highest values were recorded between 62° to 69° S and between 16° to 30° E. A high density of krill larvae was encountered in the shelf region during January 1987 which was related to chlorophyll concentration. However, the values obtained during six consecutive summers showed that values of adult krill biomass at given location was highly variable and, hence, not comparable on inter-annual basis, during the sampling years.

Air borne insects, mostly carried by wind currents, were trapped over the northern Arabian sea (16‡ to 20‡ N; 68‡ to 72‡ E), in the course of cruise No. 111, ORVSAGAR KANYA (March 14 to April 7, 1996). A total of 2,301 insects belonging to 8 different orders, 47 families and 173 species were trapped. Of these, Hymenoptera was represented by the largest number (1082), which was followed by Hemiptera (586), Diptera (552), Coleoptera (51), Neuroptera (10), Trichoptera (03), Lepidoptera (03) and Orthoptera (01). The trapped insects were mostly between 0.6 mm to over 11 mm long. The data was examined for α-diversity as well as for possible correlations between various parameters like the diversity index, size and number of insects trapped on one hand and the distance of the nearest land mass in wind direction, on the other.