Photo © John Weller

Repeat early closure exposes widening gap between Antarctic conservation  & fisheries management

For the second year running and just one day after World Krill Day, the Antarctic krill fishery has been shut down early, a stark warning sign that the management of one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing fisheries urgently needs to be reformed.

Antarctic scientists meeting at the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Open Science Conference report that the fishery officially closed on August 12, 2026, after vessels reached the trigger catch limit of 620,000 tonnes, ending the season months ahead of schedule for the second year running. 

Krill are the foundation of the Southern Ocean food web, sustaining penguins, whales, seals and countless other Antarctic species. Yet fishing effort has become increasingly concentrated around the Antarctic Peninsula, where wildlife depends on dense krill aggregations during critical breeding and feeding periods. Although the overall catch remains a relatively low percentage of the overall biomass, concentrating fishing effort in key predator foraging areas reduces local prey availability, increasing the distance predators must travel to obtain sufficient food for species already under intensified stress from a changing climate.

This is precisely why Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) matter. Well-designed MPAs shield the areas where marine life concentrate to feed and breed from industrial fishing pressure, giving penguins, whales and seals a buffer as climate change already strains their food supply. CCAMLR Members agreed as far back as 2009 to establish a representative system of MPAs across the Southern Ocean, yet not a single new MPA has been adopted since 2016. The Antarctic Peninsula, the very region where krill fishing is now most concentrated, remains without protection, despite a proposal having been on the table for years.

Following the expiry of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) Conservation Measure 51-07 in late 2024, safeguards that distributed fishing effort across four management zones lapsed. CCAMLR’s own Scientific Committee subsequently concluded that this concentration of fishing was “not precautionary” and called for urgent reform. No replacement management system was agreed at the Commission’s 2025 annual meeting.

The closure also comes as formal objections lodged by ASOC and WWF to the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) recertification of the fishery remain under consideration, renewing scrutiny of claims that the fishery represents a global model of sustainable fishing.

“Two consecutive early closures should be a wake-up call for everyone who cares about the future of Antarctica,” said José María Figueres, former President of Costa Rica and Antarctica2030 Chair. “This is not simply about reaching a catch limit. It is about whether the international community is managing human activities in one of Earth’s last great wildernesses with the level of precaution that science demands. Antarctica is a global commons. We cannot continue short-term exploitation while the governance system struggles to keep pace with accelerating ecological change.”

The Southern Ocean krill fishery primarily supplies omega-3 nutritional supplements and aquaculture feed ingredients. Over the past decade, vessels operated by Norwegian company Aker QRILL have accounted for approximately 63 percent of the fishery’s total harvest.

MSC and industry representatives have argued that the fishery remains sustainable because total catches represent only a small proportion of estimated overall krill biomass. But the central scientific concern is not simply how much krill is harvested, but where harvesting occurs. Penguins, whales and seals depend on dense local concentrations of krill around breeding colonies rather than biomass distributed across the Southern Ocean.

Scientists also caution that current biomass estimates rely on surveys undertaken before unprecedented Antarctic sea-ice loss and the rapid climate-driven changes now transforming Southern Ocean ecosystems. Significant uncertainties remain regarding krill abundance, distribution and the cumulative impacts of climate change and industrial harvesting.

“The whole point of Certification is to give consumers confidence that they’re part of the solution and not the problem,” said Zac Goldsmith, former UK Environment Secretary and Antarctica2030 Champion. “When the management system’s own scientific advisers acknowledge the system is falling far short, that should prompt more, not less scrutiny. This must really be a wake-up call for government members of CCAMLR. The world will not forgive continued stalling and failure.”

The closure comes at a critical moment for Antarctic wildlife. Earlier this year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed both the emperor penguin and the Antarctic fur seal as Endangered, identifying declining krill availability linked to climate change as a significant factor affecting the resilience of Southern Ocean ecosystems.

Hitting the catch limit year after year is not a measure of success that the system is working; it is a warning signal. Governments must ensure that commercial interests do not substitute for intergovernmental decision-making within CCAMLR.

CCAMLR Members meeting later this year must agree on a comprehensive package of reforms that:

• Restore precautionary spatial management to prevent concentrated fishing in wildlife hotspots,
• Adopt a modern ecosystem-based krill management system,
• Establish the long-proposed Antarctic Peninsula (Domain 1) Marine Protected Area,
• Agree a roadmap to deliver a representative system of MPAs protecting 30% of the Southern Ocean by 2030.
• Ensure conservation decisions remain firmly grounded in independent science and intergovernmental governance.

“The responsibility for safeguarding Antarctica rests with governments acting collectively through CCAMLR,” said José María Figueres, former President of Costa Rica and Antarctica2030 Champion. “Industry has an important role to play, but conservation outcomes must ultimately be determined through transparent, science-based international governance.”

Antarctica2030 is a global movement uniting leaders from sport, politics, business, media, and science to champion the protection of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. Together, we aim to secure the greatest act of ocean conservation in history by securing CCAMLR’s establishment of a network of representative marine protected areas (MPAs).

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