Living Blue Planet Report

Living Blue Planet Report page 20

Antarctic krill
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is central to the food chain
in the Southern Ocean. Many types of species including whales,
penguins and fish are reliant on krill as a food source. The
abundance of krill is heavily influenced by environmental
conditions, such as the availability of phytoplankton in the summer
and the extent of sea ice in winter (CCAMLR, 2015). Although
estimates are subject to large uncertainties, the density of krill
appears to have declined in the 1980s in the Southwest Atlantic
Ocean, where most of the fishing now occurs (Figure 17).
This is the part of the Southern Ocean that has warmed
most in recent years (Gille, 2002). The Antarctic Peninsula is one
of the fastest warming areas on the planet (Turner et al., 2009).

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2009

Thousand tonnes

Year

Key

Paci fic, Antarctic

(A rea 88)

Figure 16: Annual

catches in the Antarctic

(in thousands of

tonnes) of fish and

krill combined, by

year, showing the

reduction in catch

since the creation of the

CCAMLR (Adapted from

FAO 2013-2015).

Indian Ocean,

Antarctic (Area 58)

Atlantic, Antarctic

(A rea 48)

Figure 15: Estimated

population trend for

Antarctic toothfish in

the Ross Sea showing

current management

with a 50 per cent

biomass target.

0

80

60

40

20

2000 2010 2020 2030 2040

Biomass (x1,000 tonnes)

Year

Key

Estimated spawning

stock biomass

10-90% confidence

interval

20% biomass

threshold

50% biomass

threshold