Image: Daily Maverick
That daily omega-3 capsule or premium pet food could be contributing to an ecological catastrophe thousands of kilometers away. As of August 1, 2025, krill fishing in the Antarctic has been suspended after industrial fishing fleets reached the annual cap of 620,000 tons in just seven months.
The krill fishery is not a problem of abundance, but rather of intensive, concentrated overfishing. Krill is at the top of the Antarctic food chain, feeding whales, penguins, seals, and seabirds. But demand from the supplement and aquaculture industries has escalated krill into a billion dollar fishery.
With no regulatory requirements to disperse their effort, the industrial fleets of mainly Norway, China, and South Korea fished out all the largest, richest krill feeding zones, starving wildlife of food. Organizations such as Sea Shepherd have noted that the overfishing of krill could lead to disasters in fragile ecosystems; we have already seen whales die entangled in nets.
Industry representatives proclaim the quota is "sustainable". Scientists disagree. The shutdown is a very clear indication: unfettered consumption, even when disguised as "health" products, has ramifications that go far further than the label.
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