Seismic surveys

Environmental Issues

Krill fishing

Krill are highly nutritious crustaceans (Family Euphausiaciae) that swarm in great numbers, making them relatively easy to capture, and are a key species in many marine ecosystems. Blue whales feed almost exclusively on a range of krill species. We all hear about commercial fishing for krill, and many people assume krill fishing occurs in Australian waters. What are the facts?

No krill fishery exists in Australian waters, although one was proposed for the Bonney Upwelling in about 1990.

Commercial fishing for krill is currently conducted only in the productive waters of the Antarctic Peninsula, focusing on the Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. The main fishing nations are Norway and China, with South Korea and Chile also involved as lesser players. Krill is used for fish food and nutritional supplements - attempts to make it an attractive human food have never succeeded. The fishery is regulated by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), of which Australia is a signatory nation. The current annual catch limit is 620,000 tonnes, and in 2025 for the first time, this limit was reached months early.

The main concern about the fishery is that it occurs in a few areas, such as Gerlache and Bransfield Straits, where krill densities are higher than anywhere else. This means that baleen whales and other krill predators such as Adelie penguins are also attracted to these areas to feed, so clearly there will be some competition between ships and marine fauna. The internet is full of worrying images of krill super-trawlers catching krill in the middle of feeding schools of fin and humpback whales, and some humpbacks have been drowned during fishing operations. Scientists and conservationists are concerned that whales directly affected by competition with krill trawlers will be forced to work harder to find adequate krill, with potential effects on their health and reproductive status.

The bottom line for the Australasian region is that there is currently no krill fishery in our region or in the Antarctic to Australia’s south, that is likely to impact migratory whales that enter our waters. That is not to say that we are not concerned about this issue, which always has the potential to escalate, given the vast energy requirements of the Earth’s growing human population.