Zac's whale swimming group, the group whose airplane broke down, also encountered another anomaly. The whales left early--just left for their migration south to the krill rich Antartica region.
What a huge disappointment! But nature is no servant. Zac mentions that there might have been a temporary change in water temperature, a signal to head south.
So the disappointed swimmers opted to take the fourteen hour ferry back home.
There was a surprise on that ferry. The boat caught up and chugged along with the whales. The travelers were rewarded with hundreds of whales, breeching, swimming, flapping.
Nature is unpredictable.
Our second day in, Zac mentions that the whale population is less than usual. Ahhhh. That is why our search takes hours. His hypothesis is that the krill supplement market is taking the krill, the sustenance for whales, penguins, seals, penguins, sea birds.
A google search confirms his suspicions:
Supertrawlers Are Taking Antarctic Krill That Whales Depend On
Now another possible threat to krill populations is worrying researchers and conservationists. The crustacean’s massive concentrations in the Antarctic have attracted supertrawlers from around the world that vacuum up to 1,000 tons of krill a day, then process the animals onboard into krill oil. Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, the oil is used in human nutritional supplements, as food for aquaculture, and in pet food.
Thanks to technology that allows large-scale harvesting, the business began to take off about 15 years ago and is now booming. Last October, Norway began lobbying the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which manages the krill fishery, to double the allowable take in the Southern Ocean. The krill industry is worth as much as $900 million annually.
But there is growing alarm among researchers and conservationists about what the harvest could mean for whales, in addition to imperiled seals and penguins. Earlier this year, the European Union passed a resolution calling for a five-year moratorium on all krill fishing in the Southern Ocean as a precaution while more data are gathered.
“Our calculations suggest an alarming possibility that we might harvest krill to the point where we do real damage to recovering whale populations,” said Matthew Savoca, a whale researcher at Stanford University and the coauthor of a recent study that addressed this issue.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/antarctica-krill-whales
So, if you're taking krill supplements, consider an alternative.
The whales I met will thank you.
Comments