The French (ANR) project MyctO‐3D‐MAP proposes an innovative combination of methods to assess the distribution and habitats of the main aggregating myctophid species of the Southern Ocean: 1) the use of 2 myctophid predators, the southern elephant seal and king penguin as bio‐samplers, 2) acoustic surveys, 3) biophysical oceanography, and 4) modelling.

Outputs of micronekton biomass distributions from a SEAPODYM regional high resolution (1/12°x day) configuration using physical forcing from Mercator-ocean models are provided to analyse the behaviour of predators. 38kHz acoustic data are collected onboard the R.V. Marion Dufresne  to be used for the optimization of the micronekton model.