International NGO the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is calling for a moratorium on Antarctic krill fishing to protect krill and the wildlife that rely on them.
The WWF said the need for the moratorium comes after the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Hobart, Australia, last October 31 ended without any agreement reached on critical fisheries management measures.
The NGO said that even after lengthy negotiations, there was no agreement on long-term improvements to the krill fishery or designating a new marine protected area in the Antarctic Peninsula region.
The krill fishery was forced to close early in 2025 after its entire 620,000-tonne annual quota was rapidly caught. The WWF said the early closure was a consequence of a critical protection measure, which spatially distributed krill catch, being allowed to lapse in 2024.
"Due to CCAMLR’s failure to resolve this issue, the krill fishery will continue to be managed without precautionary regulations in place with the whole quota able to be taken from any small area around the Antarctic Peninsula," the WWF said via a press release on Saturday, November 1.
"As the industrial krill fishery has expanded, reported incidents of seabird, seal and whale bycatch have grown, indicating the fishery is concentrating in key foraging grounds for these krill predators."
The NGO cited Oceans, the recently released documentary by TV naturalist David Attenborough, which it said shows the impact krill fishing can have on these other animals [Attenborough's documentary has been called out by fishermen's groups for being virtue- rather than evidence-based - ed].
The WWF added that it is calling for a moratorium on krill fishing to protect these species until a new, highly precautionary and ecosystem-based management framework is agreed.