In January 2024, the Sea Shepherd ship Allankay arrived at the northwestern extremity of Coronation Island, Antarctica. The international conservation organisation takes direct action to protect marine wildlife, and the ship’s crew were on a campaign to highlight the environmental destruction of krill fishing in the Southern Ocean.
Upon spotting the Allankay, the Ukrainian supertrawler More Sodruzhedtva quickly retracted its nets. It took a dangerous turn, prompting the Sea Shepherd crew to manoeuvre swiftly preventing a collision.
More than a dozen supertrawlers are licensed to fish for krill, a tiny crustacean and key food source for whales, dolphins and other animals that travel thousands of miles to feed on it.
Krill populations have declined by 80 per cent since 1970, as the industry expands for use in omega-3 supplements, aquaculture feed, pet food and cosmetics.
The trawlers go after pods of spouting whales because they know [that’s where] there’s krill. To protect the world’s largest creatures, we have to protect the world’s smallest creatures
— Peter Hammarstedt
Although legal, krill fishing’s links with environmental destruction require greater attention, says captain Peter Hammarstedt, director of campaigns for Sea Shepherd Global.
He explains, “When there’s somebody breaking the law, we will help to fill that law enforcement void. If the law is insufficient, then we need to first work to change the law.”
Pink water pours from the supertrawlers as krill is boiled down to oil, painting a sharp resemblance with the factory ships that processed whale blubber through the 20th century.
This is not the only parallel between the two industries – a study by researchers at Stanford University found that human demand for krill poses a challenge to the recovery of whale species once hunted to near extinction.
“The trawlers go after pods of spouting whales because they know [that’s where] there’s krill,” says Hammarstedt. “To protect the world’s largest creatures, we have to protect the world’s smallest creatures.”
Whales and krill are intricately connected, with a previous Stanford study finding that whales fertilise the ocean through their droppings, providing nutrients for the phytoplankton that krill eat.
A particularly distressing consequence of krill fishing is its connection to humpback whale pregnancies. A study published by researchers at the University of California last year found that 86 per cent of female humpbacks sustained their pregnancies in 2017, while the rate in 2020 was 29 per cent. They correlated this directly with the availability of krill.
We’re not talking about food security here and any kind of necessity. This is fishing for profit
— Peter Hammarstedt
It is now also known that although toxins ingested by whales are often harmlessly stored in their blubber, this is consumed when the whales are hungry. Part of the reason that female humpbacks have a longer life expectancy than males is that they are able to secrete some of this poison in their milk, passing it on to their calves.
Krill is big business, with Norway taking over half the catch, followed by China. But it risks the same fate as the whaling industry, where unsustainable business models failed to take account of the ecological reality of marine environments.
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Whale hunting declined in the mid-19th century as whales were pushed to commercial extinction and petroleum made whale oil obsolete. Initially formed to manage whales as a resource, it was only in 1986 that the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling on the basis of welfare and conservation.
“It can be helpful to think of the krill fishery almost like a start-up company in that they’ve put big capital investment into building these ships,” says Hammarstedt. “It wasn’t until last year that these vessels started to turn a profit at all.”
The primary market driver of krill fishing is the demand for omega-3 health supplements. Growing concerns over the heavy metal contamination of fish from which omega-3 has traditionally been derived are leading to what Hammarstedt describes as companies “capitalising on the image of the pristine unpolluted waters of Antarctica”.
The rise in krill fishing is also linked to an increase in aquaculture as wild fish populations decline. The flesh of wild salmon is naturally pink because they eat krill and other small crustaceans, but farmed salmon will be grey unless fed additives. Hammarstedt says, “Although it will taste exactly the same as wild salmon, people are not going to buy grey salmon flesh at supermarkets.”
Krill get omega-3 from the phytoplankton and algae that they consume, so there are possibilities for humans to harvest it directly from these sources. Indeed, algal alternatives are already being used by some salmon farmers and in vegan omega-3 supplements.
Hammarstedt emphasises that krill fishing is about business rather than need, indicating the unnecessary destruction of Antarctic ecosystems: “We’re not talking about food security here and any kind of necessity. This is fishing for profit.”
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was established in response to concerns over krill exploitation in the 1980s. During their voyage the crew of the Allankay captured startling footage of supertrawlers charging through megapods of feeding whales. This evidence played a significant role in the CCAMLR’s decision not to increase the krill quota in 2024, despite efforts from the fishing industry to have it doubled.
While the Sea Shepherd campaign prevented further expansion of the industry, the Stanford study recommends further measures should be taken, including the strict regulation of an important fin whale feeding ground near Coronation Island where almost a third of all krill has been fished since 2000. But at the annual CCAMLR meeting in October, no agreement to this end was reached, with a specific proposal for the Western Antarctic Peninsula vetoed by China and Russia.
Sea Shepherd will return to Antarctica in spring 2025, supported by a campaign to map out the krill supply chain, connecting products and business choices with their impact on whales.
Krill fishing is an example of “fishing down the food web”, says Dr Stephen Comerford, marine biodiversity officer at the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, who describes the Irish sprat fishery in similar terms. Sprat are known as forage fish, since they are an important source of food for humpback and fin whales in Irish waters.
In Ireland, a small handful of industrial boats take part in unregulated sprat fishing, catching the smallest fish available when larger stocks are no longer profitable. Like the krill fishery, this isn’t illegal, but Comerford describes it as a “sign of a very damaged ecosystem”. Most of the catch goes to fishmeal for use in aquaculture and animal feed.
The lack of regulation on the sprat fishery perpetuates an outdated view of the ocean as a boundless resource, when in fact sprat numbers are under growing threat. Without the enforcement of quotas, industrial boats are hauling five times the quantity of sprat recommended by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas.
Comerford says a restriction on larger boats fishing in inshore waters would have benefits for sprat numbers, “a very important component of the feed of humpback and fin whales [which spend] long periods of time feeding in Irish waters”. It would also benefit smaller inshore fishers who “count their catch in boxes, not tonnes”, he says.
A public consultation took place earlier this year to review trawling activity in Irish waters, setting out options for restricting boats of a certain length or distance from shore. The results of the consultation, yet to be released, could have an impact on the unregulated fishing of sprat with long-term benefits for the wider marine ecosystem and the livelihoods which depend on it.
The huge pressure from industrial fishing is being further exacerbated by climate change, as rising water temperatures drive the migration of marine species. “These small pelagic fish ... they’re on the move,” says Comerford. This would have knock-on effects for the migration routes and feeding habits of whales.
Similarly, Hammarstedt outlines threats faced by krill, which rely on the shelter provided by sea ice cover to feed on phytoplankton out of reach of predators. By 2100, krill numbers are expected to reduce by half due to climate change, “so our feeling is that we’ve got to eliminate all the other risk factors”, he says.
The interconnectedness of marine ecosystems is not clearly recognised by the industrial growth models used by the krill fishing industry, and regulation is imperative to sustainable futures in Antarctica and Ireland alike. It should otherwise be expected that the ocean’s smallest creatures follow the same path as its largest.
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