The Southern Ocean is rich in marine living resources, such as fish, squid, seals, whales and krill.
Krill is a shrimp-like crustacean, which prefers cold water and is not found north of the Antarctic Polar Front. Krill are distributed all round Antarctica carried by the circumpolar current which goes west to east all around the continent.
Animal species in Antarctica that are directly dependent on krill are penguins, seals, seabirds, baleen whales, fish and squid.
The krill fishery began in the early 1980s.This caused widespread concern since krill is one of the key species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and a large uncontrolled fishery could have a very damaging environmental impact.
The Antarctic Treaty nations have adopted the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to apply an `ecosystem approach’ whereby commercial fishing takes account not only of the impact on the targeted species, but also on the prey and predators of that species.
Humpback whales catching krill in Antarctica
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