“Save the Krill” urges Greenpeace report

In Antarctica, it’s usually the whales, seals and penguins that take the spotlight, but a new report focuses on an animal further down the food chain: the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). In a report issued last week, Greenpeace International outlines the vital role that this minute crustacean plays in Antarctica’s marine ecology and documents incursions of krill-fishing vessels into coastal waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. The report claims that increased demand for krill oil coupled with easier access to the Southern Ocean due to warmer temperatures could result in disruption of vulnerable ecosystems. The group is calling for krill-fishing companies to cease fishing in proposed marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Weddell Sea and other Antarctic waters. Krill form the backbone of Antarctica’s food chains, Louisa Casson, a Greenpeace campaigner based in the group’s United Kingdom office, told Mongabay. The tiny shrimp-like creatures feed on photosynthetic plankton and in turn become a vital food source for the Southern Ocean’s iconic wildlife, including five species of baleen whales, numerous seal species, seabirds like penguins and albatrosses, fish and squid. Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). Photo by Uwe Kils via Wikimedia Commons. To observe the krill and fishing industry firsthand, Greenpeace sent its icebreaker ship, the Arctic Sunrise, on an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea in January of this year. The crew, Casson told Mongabay, “saw krill vessels in the immediate vicinity of whales and penguins so that you can see that they are directly competing for the same…

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