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Recent whale deaths highlight risks to Antarctica’s booming krill fishery
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Recent whale deaths highlight risks to Antarctica’s booming krill fishery

MIAMI (AP) — Two humpback whales were found dead and another seriously injured this year in huge nets used to harvest krill for fishmeal and omega-3 pills near Antarctica, The Associated Press has learned.

The whale deaths, which had not been previously reported, were discussed during recent negotiations between the United States, China, Russia and two dozen other countries in which officials failed to advance long-debated conservation goals and lifted some fishing limits. in the Southern Ocean. in force since 2009.

Taken together, the whale deaths and reduced catch limits represent a setback for remote areas. krill fisherywhich has boomed in recent years and will expand further following the acquisition of its largest harvester, Norway’s Aker BioMarine, by a deep-pocketed US private equity firm.

Last year, AP journalists spent more than two weeks in the frigid waters around Antarctica aboard a conservation ship. operated by Sea Shepherd Global take a rare and close look at the world’s southernmost fishery. As part of that investigation, the AP followed the tiny crustacean on its journey from the fragile ecosystem, where it is the whales’ main food, to salmon farms in Europe, Canada and Australia, pet food manufacturers in China and an ancient ice cream factory in Houston that produces 80% of the world’s nutrient-rich krill oil.

Delegates to the annual meeting in Australia of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) shared previously unpublished reports of whale deaths with the AP on condition of anonymity because the talks, which ended last week, are not open to the public. Officials at CCAMLR, which was established in 1982 to protect international waters near Antarctica, had no comment.

Under a conservation agreement developed almost two decades ago, krill catch has skyrocketed: from 104,728 metric tons in 2007 to 424,203 metric tons in 2023, as larger and more sophisticated vessels have joined the chase. So far this year, the catch has risen to 498,000 metric tons, the highest on record, according to unpublished reports.

Although fishing is still below a previously agreed limit and barely represents 1% of the estimated 63 million metric tons of krill biomass found in major Antarctic fishing grounds, direct competition between marine mammals has already resulted in whale deaths. .

But following the first recorded entanglements of four humpback whales in 2021 and 2022, Aker BioMarine redesigned its fishing nets, which regularly suck in up to 500 metric tons of krill per day, the equivalent daily diet of about 150 humpback whales. First, it added a rope barrier to repel large mammals, and then last fall it developed a second barrier to close a still-sizable gap that can threaten vertically swimming whales.

The new net had not yet been installed when a juvenile humpback was observed dead on January 27 on the Antarctica Endurance, the company’s most advanced super trawler, according to a report presented by Norwegian negotiators at the CCAMLR meeting.

The reasons behind the second death in May involving another Aker BioMarine ship are still unclear. But two days earlier, the ship reported difficulty maneuvering its net and blubber was recovered on the ship’s conveyor belt, suggesting the dead whale had been trapped in the net for some time, the report said.

A third humpback was captured alive in late January on a Chilean-flagged ship, the Antártida Endeavor, using traditional trawl gear. After the boat’s crew struggled for 40 minutes to cut the net tightly enveloping the 15-metre-long male, the whale, with blood on its tail, was thrown back into the ocean.

“Upon release he was lethargic and had some injuries from friction with the net,” according to a report by the Chilean delegation at the CCAMLR talks that included graphic images of the capture. Although the whale was observed swimming, CCAMLR scientists considered the capture a mortality event because the released whale’s injuries would likely prove fatal.

Attempts to contact the owner of the trawler, Pesca Chile SA, were unsuccessful.

A minke whale was also found dead after becoming entangled in a buoy belonging to a South Korean vessel fishing for toothfish, also managed by CCAMLR. It was the first whale death recorded in the fishery.

Pressure on krill populations is increasing as a result of increasing demand for omega-3 pills taken as dietary supplements, advances in fishing, and rising ocean temperatures due to climate change.

This summer, New York-based American Industrial Partners acquired a majority stake in Aker BioMarine’s feed business with the goal of positioning krill as a premium ingredient for the aquaculture industry, which is now the source of approximately half of the world’s seafood.

Webjørn Barstad, CEO of the new company, Aker BioMarine Antarctica, said developing new technologies to mitigate whale mortality risks is a top priority. Starting next season, he said, his entire fleet will be equipped with special stretch sensors that will alert the crew when a whale has interacted with the front mesh of a trawler’s net. Underwater cameras can also be used, he said.

“Our goal is always zero incidents,” Barstad said in an interview. “Hopefully the network works, but we will also try something else.”

CCAMLR, whose mission is conservation, is tasked with refereeing the fishing industry. But in recent years, progress has stalled due to geopolitical disputes, especially opposition from China and Russia.

Going into the last meeting, hopes were high that delegates would approve a new management plan to further expand krill harvesting and ultimately adopt a California-sized reserve along the Antarctic Peninsula, a highly sensitive ecosystem. Currently, less than 5% of the Southern Ocean is protected, well below the CCAMLR target and not enough to meet the UN target of preserve 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

But a tentative agreement collapsed due to a last-minute proposal by the United Kingdom and Australia for an even lower catch limit than agreed during talks over the summer, according to a delegate who spoke to the AP. China, objecting to persistent Western demands, then withdrew its support for the marine reserve and refused to renew the existing management system.

The result: a 620,000-metric-ton catch limit that for 15 years has divided the fishery into four quota areas can now be concentrated on even smaller krill hotspots, some of them teeming with wildlife, including seals and penguins, and some are already showing signs of competitive stress. with fishing, tourism and climate change.

“The meeting was a huge disappointment, even by the low standards we expected,” said Evan Bloom, who for 15 years, until his retirement from the State Department in 2020, led the US delegation to the CCAMLR annual meeting. .

“Krill is the base of the food chain in Antarctica and krill fisheries must be managed sustainably for the entire ecosystem to thrive,” Bloom said, adding that in the absence of further action by CCAMLR and given advances in fishing, the “prospects” for damaging the ecosystem have now increased.”

Barstad said the krill industry will consider setting its own voluntary limits in the absence of an updated CCAMLR framework.

“I’m not so sure if this is a big setback,” he said. “Once you get beyond the emotion and accept the fact that a regulation that had been in place for several years suddenly disappeared, a bit out of nowhere, I think you could create a better atmosphere for discussing how to progress sustainably. based on science.”

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This story was supported by funds from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.