Right now, Sea Shepherd's vessel Allankay is in the Southern Ocean, shadowing krill super trawlers as they drag their nets through the feeding grounds of whales. For three years, our campaign has documented this industrial plunder of Antarctica and forced it into the global spotlight. The pressure is working. This week, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)— a founding partner of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the body that certifies the krill fishery as 'sustainable' — formally objected to that certification and called for an immediate moratorium on krill fishing. It is a direct consequence of growing scrutiny of an industry that has operated out of sight and out of mind for far too long.

Citing serious concerns about growing industrial fishing pressure and dramatic climate-driven impacts on the ecosystem, Rhona Kent, Polar Oceans Programme Manager at WWF-UK, was unequivocal: "Antarctic krill are the powerhouse of the Southern Ocean, and mismanagement of the krill fishery is having a major negative impact on the species which depend on krill, such as whales. To protect this extraordinary species and wider ecosystem, WWF is calling for an immediate moratorium on krill fishing and a review of the sustainability certification issued by the MSC until more precautionary fisheries management measures are agreed by CCAMLR."

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), a global coalition of conservation organizations dedicated to protecting Antarctic ecosystems, submitted a separate objection on the same grounds. "Our objection is about ensuring that the environmental impacts of the krill fishery have been accurately assessed," said Claire Christian, ASOC's Executive Director. "This case highlights a clear mismatch between the certification and the contemporary reality of the Antarctic krill fishery."

Sea Shepherd Global's Chief Campaigns Officer, Peter Hammarstedt, welcomed the development:

"WWF's decision to object to the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) re-certification of the Antarctic krill fishery as 'sustainable' is a significant development, particularly given that WWF is a founding organization of the MSC. Its subsequent call for an immediate moratorium on krill fishing is welcome and sends a clear message to retailers: super trawlers dragging massive nets through the feeding grounds of whales, in pursuit of the very prey those whales depend upon, cannot credibly be described as sustainable. No label or certification claim can obscure the reality that these products are putting Antarctic whales at risk."

What the "Sustainable" Label is Hiding

The industry's central defense rests on a single claim: that krill super trawlers extract “only” around 1% of the total estimated krill biomass, making their operations sustainable. It’s a deliberately misleading figure the industry repeats often.

That 1% is drawn from biomass surveys conducted nearly two decades apart, in a region that has experienced dramatic climate disruption since. More critically, it obscures where the fishing actually takes place. The krill fleet concentrates its operations in a small number of ecologically critical hotspots, the same areas where humpback whales travel thousands of miles to feed and Adélie and chinstrap penguins forage for their chicks. Recovering whale populations are forced to compete with industrial krill super trawler nets for the same prey. A logging company claiming it cuts only 1% of the world's trees — while omitting that all of that logging is concentrated in the Amazon — would rightly be called out for greenwashing. The krill industry's arithmetic works the same way.

Last season, the fleet reached its catch limit ahead of schedule for the first time in history, triggering an unprecedented early closure in August 2025. In Subarea 48.1 — a known hotspot for whales, seals and penguins that feed on krill — it took 58% of its total catch, more than double the proportion from the previous season. This is not the behavior of a well-managed fishery.

Compounding the problem is what CCAMLR (the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) — the intergovernmental body responsible for managing Antarctic marine resources — allowed to happen in 2024. A longstanding conservation measure requiring catches to be spatially dispersed was quietly allowed to lapse, removing the only effective brake on concentrated extraction. CCAMLR met again in October 2025 and failed, once more, to address this, while also failing for another year to designate the Marine Protected Areas its own Scientific Committee has endorsed. The precautionary principle is being applied far more rigorously to protection than to industrial use.

What Sea Shepherd Is Witnessing at Sea Right Now

Sea Shepherd has documented the krill fleet operating in and around the feeding grounds of whales, penguins, and seals for three consecutive years. What we have seen confirms what concerns a growing body of Antarctic scientists and whale researchers: encounters between krill super trawlers and whales are not exceptional events. They are routine.

Our vessel, the Allankay, is in the Southern Ocean right now. This season, for the first time, we have independent scientists on board — led by Dr. Matthew Savoca of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station and Dr. Ted Cheeseman of UC Santa Cruz — conducting rigorous, peer-reviewed research. The team is carrying out line-transect surveys to estimate whale abundance and distribution, using drones to measure distances between whales and super trawlers, conducting passive acoustic monitoring, and photo-identifying individual animals. On our first day back off Coronation Island, the Sea Shepherd crew documented super trawlers hauling nets amid actively feeding whales, with visible blows and flukes rising alongside industrial fishing operations.

“We think this zone around the South Orkney Islands may have the highest biomass of whales of anywhere on the planet,” said Dr. Cheeseman. It is also where the krill super trawlers concentrate their effort.

The consequences are direct and documented. In 2024, three juvenile humpback whales were fatally entangled in krill trawler nets. In March 2025, another humpback was found dead in a trawler's net, triggering a criminal investigation. Penguin populations in the South Orkney Islands have collapsed: Adélie penguins down 42%, chinstrap penguins down 68%. A 2023 peer-reviewed study found humpback whale pregnancy rates dropped from 86% in years of high krill abundance to as low as 29% following periods of reduced availability. These are not the outcomes of a sustainable fishery.

A Clear Message for Retailers

For retailers still stocking krill-based products — omega-3 supplements, krill oil capsules, krill-enhanced pet food — WWF's objection carries serious weight. Holland & Barrett, one of Europe's largest health and wellness retailers, will have fully ended the sale of all krill products by April 2026, and is the first major retailer in the United Kingdom to do so.

And to take it further, last month Sea Shepherd Global announced the co-creation of the Antarctic Krill Pledge with Holland & Barrett, a call to action encouraging retailers worldwide to commit to ending sales of all krill-based products and to never reintroduce them. The question now is which retailers will sign, and which will continue stocking products that a founding member of the certifying body has said should not be on shelves. 

Sign the Pledge at seashe.ph/nokrill