Krill Fishing and the Environment

Sustainable Resource

It has been speculated that harvesting krill in the Antarctic has led to a decrease in the krill population and threatened the important ecosystem made up of penguins, seabirds, seals and whales.

However, due to careful guidelines developed by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), fisheries only catch approximately 100,000 tons of krill per year. This amount is well below the potential harvest allowed of 6.5 million tons per year.

The mandate of the CCAMLR is to strive to “implement a holistic, or ‘ecosystem approach’ to the management of marine living resources in the Southern Ocean.”

The Future of Krill

Although there is increasing media attention concerning how much krill is being fished, the issues surrounding krill are much more complex than is often reported. As a company AquaSource Products is committed to keeping the fishing of krill and the needs of the Antarctic wildlife a priority. It should be noted that CCAMLR is one of the most advanced and forward thinking organizations in the world, working extensively with environmental groups to make sure that the krill fishery does not impact the ecosystem of the Antarctic in a negative way. AquaSource Products sensitive to our impact on the greater ecology, and committed to environmentally responsible practices. AquaSource Products will continue to secure its raw material from suppliers who are ethical in their fishing in regard to environmental issues and who act responsibly in their commercial activities.

Understanding Trigger Levels

There is a precautionary limit (trigger level) of 620 000 tonnes in area 48 and in area 58.4.2 the precautionary limit totals 452 000 tonnes. Once this limit is achieved, CCAMLR may choose to close the krill fishery until a procedure for the division of the overall catch limit into smaller management units is implemented. The “trigger level” was adopted to prevent local depletion of Krill, in the event of a rapid expansion of the fishery.

Other Protections Adopted By CCAMLR

As a way to further protect the ecosystem of the Antarctic and at the same time create a sustainable krill fishery, CCAMLR has implemented many measures. Listed are some of the most important ones:

• Extensive Licensing Procedures - for a list of licensed vessels visit http://www.ccamlr.org/pu/e/sc/fish-monit/vess-licensed.htm
• CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) monitors the potential effects of krill fishing on species that either feed on krill directly, or which themselves are eaten by krill predators.
• Provide Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported List of Vessels http://www.ccamlr.org/pu/e/e_pubs/cr/07/a6.pdf