The cost of killing krill

[Guest guest]

The cost of killing krill

By Virginia Gascon Gonzalez and Rodolfo Werner Kinkelin

Friday, Nov 03, 2006, Page 9

 

A tiny crustacean crucial to the Antarctic marine food chain is in danger of

being overfished - to the detriment of other sea life

 

 

A recent report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization found that almost

half of all fish eaten worldwide are raised on fish farms rather than caught in

the wild. It is likely that consumption of no other fish has soared more than

that of farmed salmon, with production surging by almost 300 percent in 20

years.

 

Salmon are carnivorous, however, and to feed the voracious appetite of these

legions of farm-raised fish, the aquaculture industry increasingly has turned

its attention to a small crustacean commonly known as Antarctic krill. But

that's bad news for leopard seals and Adelie penguins, humpback and blue whales,

and many other species, because most organisms in the Antarctic marine ecosystem

eat either krill or something that eats krill.

 

Found in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, krill constitute a key

ingredient in fish oil and feed. Unfortunately, recent research indicates that

expanded krill fishing might put the Antarctic ecosystem at risk.

Representatives from the world's major fishing nations, meeting this fall in

Australia, have an opportunity to limit krill catches, thereby helping creatures

that need krill to survive.

 

Although each krill may only grow to weigh about 2g, together they constitute

one of the most abundant animal species on Earth. Indeed, krill form the largest

known aggregation of marine life, with a biomass perhaps greater than any other

multicellular animal organism on the planet.

 

This " pink gold " forms the heart of the Antarctic marine food web, and

land-based krill predators, such as penguins and seals, are most vulnerable to

krill scarcity. Scientists have found that demand for krill has begun to exceed

supply in some areas of the Southwest Atlantic. As a result, penguins and

albatrosses already experience difficulty rearing their offspring in areas such

as South Georgia. And yet krill fishing is projected to grow.

 

The Southern Ocean contains the largest population of krill in the world. As

krill tend to aggregate in concentrated swarms, they are easy to catch and have

become particularly attractive to large-scale commercial interests.

 

Moreover, krill fishing has recently been fueled by new technological advances

such as vacuum pumps, which allow a single fishing vessel to catch and process

huge amounts -- up to 120,000 tonnes per season.

 

Furthermore, demand for krill products -- from fish oil and feed to skin creams

and other cosmetics -- has increased over the past 20 years. As wild fish

populations continue to decrease, in tandem with an ever-growing global appetite

for seafood, the pressure on the aquaculture industry for fish feed will

skyrocket. The increased demand for krill, along with the new catching and

processing capabilities, has combined in a way that the Antarctic ecosystem

might not be able to withstand.

 

But there is hope. The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living

Resources (CCAMLR) was established in 1982, as part of the Antarctic Treaty

System, in response to concerns that continued unregulated fishing might

undermine the basis of the Antarctic food chain. The CCAMLR is governed by a

commission of 24 member states -- including Argentina, Australia, Chile, Japan,

Norway, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Ukraine, the US and the EU -- that

meets annually in Hobart, Australia, to discuss new fishing regulations

concerning marine species in the Southern Ocean.

 

The CCAMLR has pioneered ecosystem and precautionary approaches to fisheries

management, which are now central to maintaining Antarctic krill. Although the

needs of krill-dependent species were previously considered for large areas of

the Southern Ocean, the CCAMLR must still scientifically subdivide the overall

catch limit into smaller units. This would help avoid local competition between

krill vessels and the creatures that need krill to live, since krill fishing

closely overlaps with the critical foraging areas for penguins and seals.

 

The CCAMLR's members must honor the organization's mandate for conservation and

ensure that there is enough " pink gold " to feed the penguins and other wildlife

that depend on it. The CCAMLR should also apply to krill fishing the same

monitoring, control and surveillance measures that it requires for all other

fisheries.

 

Antarctic krill must not be fished to feed the fish farms of the world while

starving the penguins, seals, whales and other species whose survival depends on

these tiny, but vitally important, creatures.

 

Virginia Gascon Gonzalez is a policy adviser and Rodolfo Werner Kinkelin a

scientific adviser at the Antarctic Krill Conservation Project.

 

Project Syndicate

 

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