The krill crisis â why the Southern Oceanâs most critical species is under threat

This story has significance for readers across Africa and beyond.

When spatial rules aimed at spreading catches across the harvesting grounds expired in late 2024, and China and Russia blocked their renewal, the krill hit the diplomatic fan.

After all, removing the allowed catch across a broad area over an entire season does not necessarily unleash the same stress as hoovering it up from a smaller number of biologically important, concentrated areas.

The krill industry, however, now appears to have developed the capacity to take the full allowance much faster than it once did. That is why, conservation groups and some scientists argue, fishing has become unacceptably strenuous in the very areas near the Antarctic Peninsula where predators also gather to feed.

So, what does 620,000 tons tell regulators about how much krill is too much?

Without krill, the Southern Ocean would be a far lonelier place, unable to support anything like its current abundance of penguins, seals, whales and other wildlife.

But much of the krill taken from Antarctic waters ultimately enters consumer supply chains through aquaculture feed, pet food and omega-3 supplements. Norwegian NGO WePlanet says the more than half-a-million tons demanded by those industries have about the same mass as the seasonal food needs of 850 Antarctic blue whales â the largest mammals in the observable universe.

Since there is still a lot of krill left in the waters roiling around Antarctica, this does not mean that the fishery has deprived 850 whales of food. Yet, the metaphor may convey the scale of the catch â particularly if, awkwardly, much of it comes from the same area.

Climate change complicates things down there. Marine biologist Sylvia Earle, a spokesperson for one NGO group, argues that warming waters and declining sea ice are already stressing krill and the regionâs food web.

âThe krill fishing industry is promoted as sustainable, but removing a foundation species from a fragile and rapidly changing ecosystem is not sustainable,â argued oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle, convener of the activist group Antarctic Avengers.

A bigger catch, or a bigger problem?

The issue has become more pressing because the industry could be allowed to grow substantially.

At the 2025 meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, or CCAMLR, Norway unsuccessfully proposed nearly doubling the threshold to 1.2 million tons annually.

Norwayâs position carries particular weight because of the scale of its industrial involvement; CCAMLR statistics say that the country took 63.8% of the total krill catch in the decade to 2024. China, the second most active krill state, took 18%; followed by South Korea at 10%.

Then there is the Marine Stewardship Councilâs ongoing, if contentious, recertification of Aker QRILLâs operation in the Southern Ocean â the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (Asoc) and the WWF have lodged objections to this.

A fishery can, theoretically, obey any numerical limit â even while vessels fish more vigorously in the most sought-after blocks; and even while a changing climate hammers the ocean.

And though the 2025 shutdown could have been an exceptional season at the time, once again hitting the early trigger in 2026 suggests that breakneck exhaustion may â for the time being â be something of a more persistent embarrassment for a fisheries body tasked with conservation.

When CCAMLR gathers in Hobart, Tasmania, on 5 October, all bets are off about how this trend may be weaponised during what has turned into the most bitter annual ocean showdown on the planet.

Krill Explainer

Teeming in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, krill are small, shrimp-like crustaceans that play a major role in the ecosystem.

They feed mainly on phytoplankton and algae, which use sunlight to produce food. Krill are then eaten by animals such as fish, penguins, seals and whales, transferring energy from microscopic plants to much larger animals.

As energy passes from phytoplankton to krill, and then to larger life such as whales, this creates a critical food chain.

Without sufficient krill, many Antarctic predators would have less food and could struggle to survive and reproduce. This would damage the entire food web.

Krill are known to contribute to Earthâs climate. Phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide as they grow â when krill eat them, some of this carbon enters the krill and their waste. Their carbon-rich waste sinks into deeper water, instead of allowing it to boomerang back to the atmosphere.

Krill are therefore essential residents of the Southern Ocean. Their role shows how tiny organisms can have an outsized impact on an entire ecosystem wrapping around 10% of Planet Earth.

Costa Rica president: âEarly closures should be a wake-up callâ

The âOur Antarcticaâ campaign, featuring the likes of Earle and the English actor Benedict Cumberbatch, wants states to retain the current 620,000-ton threshold; restore binding area controls designed to spread fishing away from important predator habitats; and advance precisely the marine protected areas (MPAs) struck down by China and Russia for much of the past decade.

Antarctica is assailed by other problems, including historic toxic trash not covered by the 1991 Madrid Protocol, the regionâs environmental constitution; and high levels of underwater noise flagged by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in a far-reaching review study back in 2021. But it is MPAs and krill that have almost singularly caught much of the Antarctic NGO communityâs imagination, including Sea Shepherd.

One of these activists is José MarÃa Figueres, former president of Costa Rica and Antarctica2030 Chair. An ambassador of the Antarctica2030 campaign, Figueres said âtwo consecutive early closures should be a wake-up call for everyone who cares about the future of Antarcticaâ.

Just â11% of the precautionary catch limitâ

Asoc has pointed out that CCAMLRâs own scientific committee has âconcluded that the current concentration of krill fishing is not precautionaryâ.

Hitting back, the Oslo-based Aker BioMarine has again relied on an earlier stock argument: that, when the season closes early, the trigger system is âworking as intendedâ.

âThe Antarctic krill fishery remains one of the most tightly regulated fisheries in the world,â the krill fisher contended after the 12 August closure. Majority US-owned Aker QRILL is its harvesting partner.

Aker BioMarine argued: âAround 11 krill vessels operated during the 2026 season across CCAMLRâs Area 48, a management area covering approximately 3.5 million km2. The current 620,000-ton trigger level represents around 11% of CCAMLRâs precautionary catch limit of 5.61 million ton for Area 48 and less than 1% of the approximately 63 million tons of krill biomass estimated by the 2019 CCAMLR synoptic survey.â

South Africa: Untenable âdeadlockâ

Aker BioMarine and Qrill said they supported the establishment of the Antarctic Peninsula MPA â but this argument may have to go much further to allay concerns about everyone diving into the same smorgasbord.

Despite its BRICS alliances with China and Russia, South Africaâs 2021 Antarctic strategy is a document leaning heavily into marine conservation as its lodestar. And it is by giving expression to this strategy that the African stateâs diplomatic approach has diverged from the consensus blockers.

The South African delegation, in fact, was among the most outspoken at the 2025 talks, describing the failure to agree on the krill traffic-control system as âuntenableâ.

âThis continued deadlock undermines CCAMLRâs credibility as a conservation body,â it said. âSouth Africa remains optimistic that the members will continue to engage in insatiable efforts on the margin to move CCAMLR [to] overcome these untenable circumstances, and continue progress as a global leader in conservation and fisheries management.â DM

Reporting originally appeared via Daily Maverick. Read the full source for additional context.