It’s a tiny, shrimp-like crustacean, not bigger than a paperclip. Despite its minimal size, Antarctic krill, one of the planet’s largest biomasses that nourishes everything from fish to giant humpback whales, has a massively vital role in fighting climate change. But in the past decade, a rising, global demand for krill as a dietary supplement has been ravaging Antarctica’s remote, frigid waters through krill over-fishing that now more than ever, activists and researchers say, threatens the very base of the food chain and the environment’s sustainability.
While krill have long been used in aquaculture to fatten farm fish like salmon and in pet food, it wasn’t until a decade ago when krill oil started becoming a gold rush for the dietary supplement industry. Marketed as a superior and sustainable alternative to fish oil, Antarctic krill products are touted as more effective in delivering omega-3 fatty acids than fish oil, which has been linked to improved heart and brain health. However, according to critics, the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest agency responsible for biomedical and public health research, omega-3 supplements haven’t been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.
The multi-billion dietary supplement industry is feeding on the claims, with some of the hundreds of manufactures selling their krill products to consumers boasting that “we only use superior sourced krill that is harvested in the waters of Antarctica” while others promise that krill is “sustainably harvested from pristine waters…”
But for all the claims of sustainability, the rise in demand has seen quotas reached with alarming speed. Krill in Antarctica has been harvested by about a dozen super trawlers from five nations -mostly from China and Norway, followed by Ukraine, Chile and South Korea. These massive vessels are floating factories, some the size of football pitches, capable of vacuuming up more than 1,000 tons of krill a day.
“It’s pretty worrisome when you’ve got fisheries exploring these ‘unexploited’ areas or discovering large stocks of fish,” says Teale Phelps Bondaroff, director of research at OceansAsia. “This really should raise eyebrows because what’s really driving that expansion? Krill oil is obviously one factor.”
Back in 2021, a cross-border investigation into the global fishing industry by the Environmental Reporting Collective found that in the previous year, catch limits for Antarctic krill were reached in 69 days as opposed to 130 days in the past five years. According to a report from the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Antarctic krill fishing has exponentially increased by over the past two decades by 400 percent. Under a conservation agreement developed almost two decades ago, the krill catch has soared: from 104,728 metric tones in 2007 to 415,508 metric tons in 2022, as larger, more sophisticated vessels have joined the chase. Those levels were below internationally agreed conservation limits. One company, Aker Biomarine from Norway is responsible for around 70 percent of the catch while a former ice cream factory in Houston, United States produces 80 percent of the world’s krill oil.
But as these gigantic vessels brave through Antarctica’s rough seas to follow and catch the massive swarms of krill, the stakes have become higher.
Direct competition with marine mammals seems inevitable -a reality dramatically underscored when four juvenile humpback whales were entangled by a Norwegian krill boat in 2021 and 2022.
Moreover, while the end of commercial whaling has allowed populations to rebound, a new study by the University of California, Santa Cruz found that pregnancy rates among humpback whales in Antarctica have been falling sharply -possibly to a lack of krill, their main prey. Chinstrap penguins and fur seals face similar stresses.
In 2023, two Associated Press journalists spent two weeks aboard a Sea Shepherd Global conservation vessel in Antarctica to witness the world’s southernmost fishery.
“If this was off the coast of Alaska, it would be a national park,” Alistair Allan, an activist for Australia’s Bob Brown Foundation told the AP journalists. “But since it’s down here, at the bottom of the world, where no one is watching, you have ships almost running into whales feeding on the same things they’re fishing.”
Sea Shepherd recently returned to Antarctica aboard the vessel Allankay to observe industrial krill fishing in the area, just as tourism and research boats had left the area for the season. One morning, the crew woke up to a feeding frenzy with over 500 massive fin whales feeding on krill.
“None of us on board had ever seen anything like it, not even the returning crew from last year,” said captain Alex Cornelissen from on board Allankay off Antarctica. “And still, trawlers were there, fishing right in the middle of it.”
The presence of super fish trawlers in these feeding grounds isn’t just disruptive, Sea Shepherd said, it is dangerous. According to the non-profit organization, one of the largest marine conservation activism in the world, last season at least three whales were reported caught in krill nets and these are only the cases that made it into official reports. Krill trawlers, Sea Shepherd, adds often steer directly toward whales, using their presence to locate large swaths of krill.
The non-profit has launched a global awareness campaign while noting that there are also plant-based alternatives for omega-3 supplements.
The international organization that manages the Antarctic krill fishery, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) insists their practices do not disrupt the marine ecosystem.
Krill vessels monitor their own locations, it says, and diligently report their catch to CCAMLR, which sets strict catch limits around the Antarctic. But it is clear that in some areas, the most vulnerable ones according to conservationists, those limits are being disrupted as countries rush to join the race.
“All those iconic images we associate with Antarctica of whales, seals and penguins -it’s a magafauna hotspot, and it’s because of krill,” says Deborah Steinberg of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Several scientists have been warning that stricter controls must be put in place so krill can continue its vital role as a buffer against climate change and sustenance for whales, penguins and seals. Krill, according to new research published by the World Wildlife Fund, remove as much as 23 megatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. That’s the equivalent of taking off the road five million cars every year.
