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[First paragraph…]The Patagonian Shelf extends from Uruguay in the north to the Strait of Magellan in the south and reaches a maximal width of some 850 km in its southern part and covers an area of c.2.7 million km2 (Bakun 1993). Influenced by 2 major currents, the warm, saline, southward-flowing Brazil Current and the cool nutrient rich, northward flowing Falklands/Malvinas Current, the Patagonian Shelf resources provide rich year-round foraging grounds for several marine top predators and also attract a diverse and large-scale commercial fisheries fishing for squid (Loligo gahi, Illex argentinus) and a variety of fin-fish species, including hake (Merluccius spp.), Atlantic anchovy (Engraulis anchovita), kingclip (Genypterus blacodes), and Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) (Bakun 1993; Croxall & Wood 2002; Bastida et al. 2005).