Antarctic Peninsula · South Orkney Islands · Active Operation
Exposing
The Krill Fleet
Industrial supertrawlers are draining the food supply every whale, penguin, and seal depends on. Sea Shepherd has been on these waters for decades.
Antarctic Peninsula · South Orkney Islands · Active Operation
The Industry Stripping the Food Web
Krill are the foundation of everything alive in the Southern Ocean. Industrial fleets are extracting them at a scale that is destabilizing the entire ecosystem, and the pressure is accelerating.
Where the Whales Still Gather
The longest survey ever attempted in this region documents an extraordinary concentration of whales feeding across multiple species, in the same waters the krill fleet now works.
Not a New Fight. A New Threat.
Sea Shepherd spent more than a decade in Antarctic waters confronting the illegal Japanese whaling fleet. That campaign ended in victory. These are not unfamiliar waters.
The threat has changed. Where harpoons once decimated whale populations, industrial krill supertrawlers are now stripping the food those recovered populations depend on. Multiple fleets operate in the same waters where humpbacks and fin whales feed, competing directly with them for the same prey.
In 2025, the fishery hit its seasonal catch limit early for the first time on record. In the same season, one whale was confirmed killed in a krill trawl net. Climate-driven sea ice loss is compounding the pressure on krill from both sides.
Antarctic Krill: Foundation of Life
At the base of the entire Southern Ocean food web sits a single keystone species: Antarctic krill.
These small, shrimp-like crustaceans form swarms that drift through the frigid Southern Ocean, feeding on phytoplankton and, in turn, feeding nearly everything above them. Baleen whales, penguins, seals, seabirds, fish, and squid all depend on krill, directly or indirectly, for survival.
Remove krill from the equation and the web does not simply lose a link. It loses its foundation.
A Toll on Antarctic Wildlife
Industrial krill fishing could be the final pressure many Antarctic species cannot survive. When krill is pulled from the water close to breeding grounds, the animals that depend on it are the first to pay.
The Krill Supertrawlers
The supertrawlers are floating factories, armed with the latest technology to catch as much krill as physically possible. They are flagged to a handful of nations and equipped with specialized trawl nets built to capture vast quantities at once.
In 2021 and 2022, multiple humpback whales were killed in these nets, suffocated as they were dragged down, underscoring the urgent need to reevaluate how this fishery operates.
Share of the 2020 krill catch by flag state. Norwegian and Chinese vessels dominate the fishery.
What Threatens It
Supertrawlers haul krill by the hundreds of thousands of tonnes annually from the same feeding grounds used by humpbacks, fin whales, penguins, seals, and seabirds. Remove the krill, and the entire food web collapses.
Krill nets operate in active whale feeding areas. One whale was confirmed killed in a trawl net in 2025, and multiple humpbacks died in nets in 2021 and 2022. The true toll in these remote waters is likely higher.
Sea ice loss is already reducing krill habitat. Industrial extraction on top of climate pressure creates a double squeeze that krill populations cannot absorb indefinitely.
Fleets refuel and transfer catch at sea, allowing them to stay on the fishing grounds for longer without returning to port, maximizing extraction and minimizing oversight in some of the world's most remote waters.
Proposed protections for key feeding areas have been repeatedly blocked by nations with commercial krill interests. In 2024, the Antarctic Peninsula MPA failed at CCAMLR once again.
The fishery exists because there is a market for it. Every krill oil supplement, omega-3 capsule, and krill-based pet food on a shelf is demand the supertrawlers are built to meet. Cut the demand and the pressure on Antarctica eases. Tell the companies still selling krill to stop.
Sea Shepherd documentation in 2025 contributed to Holland & Barrett's decision to stop selling krill-based products beginning April 2026, proof that on-the-water evidence can change industry behavior.
What Sea Shepherd Does
While the fleets work the feeding grounds, our crews are in the same waters, documenting, researching, and building the case for protection.
Tracking, photographing, and filming supertrawler operations in whale feeding grounds, building the evidentiary record for policy change.
Supporting a 30-year photo-ID whale population study on board, continuing long-term scientific baselines through active trawler operations.
Coordinating with Sea Shepherd Global and international partners across Germany, Switzerland, and beyond for the largest combined Antarctic campaign to date.
Using on-the-water evidence to advocate for permanent protections for key feeding areas at international bodies.
STAND UP FOR KRILL
Tell a retailer to drop krill products.
Find a store near you that still sells krill, and send its team a letter in seconds. Every message adds pressure and shows retailers their customers are watching. It only takes a minute.
Send a LetterTake the Antarctic Krill Pledge.
If your business sells supplements, pet food, or omega-3 products, commit to keeping krill-derived ingredients off your shelves. Join the growing coalition of retailers choosing the Southern Ocean over an industrial fishery.
Take the Pledge
