Solutions
Antarctic Krill Conservation Project Statement of Principles and Core Goals
The Antarctic Krill Conservation Project (AKCP) recognizes that Antarctica is a natural reserve, and the world's final wilderness committed to peaceful use, conservation and scientific research. Krill are at the heart of the food web of this wilderness, and action is needed to protect the Antarctic marine ecosystem.
The precautionary management of krill is essential to the protection of the Antarctic food web. Studies have demonstrated that localized depletion of krill from fishing adversely impacts several species of penguins, whales, and seals - even when these declines are relatively small compared with the overall krill biomass.
As such, it is concerning that the growing demand for krill as feed for farmed fish and as nutritional supplements could lead the krill fishery to over develop and cause irreversible impacts to penguins, whales, and seals, without proper management.
Furthermore, the potentially disastrous consequence of climate change’s depletion of seasonal sea ice – which is intimately tied to the krill’s life cycle - is little understood and is not being adequately accounted for in the current krill management scheme.
Given Antarctica's special status, the high level of uncertainties of the krill fishery’s effect on the Antarctic ecosystem and the potentially dramatic changes of krill availability to krill predators indicate that the management of krill fishing should be especially precautionary.
Accordingly, the AKCP calls on the Member Nations of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), as the key body in the Antarctic Treaty System responsible for ensuring that the unique values of the Antarctic marine ecosystem are conserved, to undertake the following:
- Adopt a highly precautionary, effective and integrated ecosystem-based package [PDF] for Antarctic krill management that ensures that functional relationships in the Antarctic ecosystem are maintained, and that krill abundance and availability for predators is not compromised, taking full account of climate change and other relevant environmental factors;
- Prevent the expansion of the fishery until these measures have been approved; and
- Formally recognize, through appropriate commitments and actions not limited to CCAMLR or the Antarctic Treaty System, that the Antarctic's unique character as the last great wilderness, as home to exceptional concentrations of biodiversity including penguins, whales, and albatrosses, and its critical role in global environmental processes, requires special conservation actions, including but not limited to protected and closed areas.
Note: For a more detailed discussion of these issues, see the detailed Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) papers that were submitted to the CCAMLR secretariat at different Commission's meetings (see www.asoc.org).
Since its establishment in 1982, CCAMLR has been a pioneer instrument in establishing an ecosystem-based approach to the management of marine resources in the Southern Oceans. A great opportunity exists now for CCAMLR to become a model for full application of the precautionary principle and ecosystem management, providing ground-breaking fisheries management approaches for the Antarctic region. To achieve that goal, CCAMLR's Member States and other stakeholders need to translate its basic conservation principles into flexible, effective management procedures that ensure the long-lasting health of the Antarctic marine environment and the species that reside therein.
See "Ecosystem Management of Antarctic Krill in the South Atlantic: Uncertainties and Priorities," [PDF], submitted by ASOC (CCAMLR-XXV, October 2006) and "Improving Monitoring and Control of the Krill Fishery," [PDF] submitted by ASOC (CCAMLR-XXV, October 2006).
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Icescape photo courtesy U.S. Antarctic Program
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