Antarctic lanternfish (Electrona antarctica) is the dominant mesopelagic fish species in the Southern Ocean. It is the most common myctophid occurring south of the Antarctic Polar Front, and an important component of Southern Ocean food webs, both as a zooplankton predator and as a major prey item for higher predators. Despite its importance, there are major gaps in current understanding of the life history of E. antarctica, with previous ageing studies having produced inconclusive results, hampering our understanding of the population structure in this species and its role in marine ecosystems. This is particularly relevant around the Kerguelen Plateau, a highly productive region in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean, where E. antarctica is a key mid-trophic level species. The present study took advantage of mesopelagic sampling efforts in the southern Kerguelen Plateau region on the 2015–2016 Kerguelen Axis study, and enumerated growth zones in the otoliths of a sample of 100 E. antarctica collected during the voyage. Growth zones were counted using both sectioned and whole otoliths and the precision of estimates was estimated by repeat counts. The estimated number of growth zones in the sectioned otoliths of E. antarctica (standard length 53–97 mm) ranging from 2 to 9. The average coefficient of variation (CV) and average percentage error (APE) for the estimated growth zones were 6.78% and 4.51%, respectively based on counts of sectioned otoliths. The number of growth zones in sectioned otoliths is positively related to weight of otolith and standard length of fish. The results presented here can inform future work on age structure and life history of E antarctica in the Southern Ocean as understanding of the nature of growth rings improves.

南极灯笼鱼（Electrona antarctica）是南部海洋中主要的近中生鱼类。它是南极极地锋以南最常见的肉食性，是南方海洋食物网的重要组成部分，既是浮游动物的捕食者，也是高等捕食者的主要猎物。尽管它的重要性，但目前对南极大肠杆菌的生活史的理解仍存在很大差距，而先前的衰老研究并未得出结论性的结果，这妨碍了我们对该物种的种群结构及其在海洋生态系统中的作用的理解。这在Kerguelen高原尤其重要，Kerguelen高原是南大洋印度片区的一个高产区，南极大肠杆菌在这里是关键的中营养水平物种。本研究利用了2015-2016年Kerguelen轴心研究在南部Kerguelen高原地区进行的中古海洋采样工作，并列举了在航行期间收集的100株南极大肠杆菌的耳石中的生长区。使用切片耳石和整个耳石对生长区进行计数，并通过重复计数来估算估计的精度。南极肠杆菌的耳石切片中生长区的估计数量（标准长度53–97 mm）范围为2到9。基于切片耳石的数量，估计生长区的平均变异系数（CV）和平均百分比误差（APE）分别为6.78％和4.51％。耳石切片中生长区的数量与耳石的重量和鱼的标准长度成正相关。随着对年轮性质的认识的提高，这里提出的结果可以为今后在南大洋中南极洲的年龄结构和生活史提供参考。