Opinion. Should South Africa Harvest Krill?

By Fannie W. Shabangu, Sobahle Somhlaba and Robin W. Leslie, of Fisheries Management, South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Antarctica is remote from South Africa, making it is very costly to travel to fishing grounds in the Southern Ocean. Sea ice is a good substrate for algal growth that supports krill juveniles, and adult krill use sea ice to escape from their predators. The recent declines in the sea ice concentrations negatively affect krill recruitment and consequently also their predator populations. However the demand for krill is anticipated to dramatically increase in the near future…