Krill & Pirates

Pirates, Vacuum-Fishing Threaten Antarctic Waters

Pirates seeking Chilean sea bass and fishing vessels that vacuum up tiny shrimp-like creatures that are a staple for whales, seals and penguins are menacing Antarctic waters, environmentalists said Thursday.

...Both kinds of fishing could undermine the complex ecosystem of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, the US conservation experts said in a telephone news conference, and will be on the agenda next week at a meeting of the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, Australia.

One problem is the rising demand for Chilean sea bass, also known as toothfish and not really a genuine sea bass at all, Stevens said on the conference call.

"It's a deep-living, slow-growing, long-lived predator fish found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica ... It's important for the survival of Weddel seals, killer whales and sperm whales," Stevens said.

Current fishing for krill is below mandated limits, but there is localized depletion, he said. New regulations could ensure continued sustainable fishing, but two factors may make this difficult, he said.

First, there is a growing demand for krill, which can be used as feed for farmed salmon, and second, the latest technology for catching krill, with ships that continuously vacuum them up, could deplete their numbers.

Some members of the Antarctic marine conservation group -- Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Chile, the United States, Norway and South Africa -- favor reformed requirements on krill, but fishing nations -- including Japan, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea and possibly Poland -- could derail this, Curtis said.

More information is available online at Krill Count and Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources .

We had learned from this article how important the krill are. And how their declining numbers due to various factors impacts the food chain:

"There seems to be a window of opportunity that was missed when the upwelling was delayed," Kudela said. "A key organism is the krill, because krill feed directly on the phytoplankton and they, in turn, are fed on by all kinds of other organisms, from fish and seabirds to whales. So if the krill are affected it has a huge impact."

It sounds to me like the pirate article is downplaying the message. Maybe the author didn't get the memo that at the rate things are going by 2048 there won't be enough fish to bother with. The vaccuum practice by "legitimate" fisherman sounds esp. bad.

It sounds like the countries that are more for the Kyoto Protocal are more likely to be against Fishing regulations and vice-versa. It seems to me that there needs to be a comprehensive plan for countries not to ruin the planet. Of course Pirates are not going to cooperate, regardless.