The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) has lodged a formal objection with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) over the decision to re-certify the Antarctic krill fishery as sustainable, citing serious concerns about increasing industrial fishing pressure and significant climate-driven impacts on the ecosystem.
The objection triggers an independent legal adjudication process in the coming months, which, if upheld, could lead to amendments to the MSC certification or the introduction of new conditions to safeguard krill stocks and the wider ecosystem.
“Our objection is about ensuring that the environmental impacts of the krill fishery have been accurately assessed,” said Claire Christian, ASOC’s executive director. “In this case, we don’t think that the assessment fully analysed the unique realities and risks of a fishery that operates in one of the most climate-sensitive ecosystems on Earth.”
ASOC argues that the rationale for re-certification contains several shortcomings:
- The claim that “only 1% of krill biomass is taken” is misleading, as biomass estimates rely on limited and infrequent surveys and do not reflect rapid, climate-driven stock changes.
- Climate change reduces confidence in existing catch limits. Record-low sea ice and projected habitat contraction mean that managing krill using historical biomass data is no longer precautionary.
- Risk is local rather than broad-scale. Even low overall catches can harm predators when fishing is concentrated in krill-dependent hotspots.
- Fishing concentration has increased. In the absence of subarea limits, pressure has intensified in sensitive regions, contributing to record catches and early closures.
- Early closures indicate management failure rather than success, as reactive shutdowns occur after impacts have taken place and reflect an unmanaged “race to fish”.
- The Olympic quota system encourages over-concentration, as shared, non-allocated quotas incentivise faster and more concentrated fishing effort.
- Predators are affected. In subarea 48.1 — a critical feeding area for penguins and humpback whales — fishing effort rose by 118 percent last season.
- “Real-time” reporting is not genuinely real time. Five-day reporting delays and inconsistent catch-estimation methods allowed quota overruns.
- Observer coverage remains incomplete, with a growing proportion of the fleet operating without independent observers to verify ecosystem impacts.
- Voluntary penguin protection measures are considered insufficient, with restricted zones displacing fishing effort rather than reducing pressure on sensitive areas.
As a result, the international krill fleet has increasingly concentrated activity within a relatively small area that also serves as key feeding grounds for whales, seals, penguins and other marine species.
This mounting pressure compounds the effects of climate change and pollution on krill, as human activity extends further into one of the planet’s last remaining wilderness areas. Since the 1970s, krill biomass in parts of the Southern Ocean is estimated to have declined by 70–80 percent.
Despite this broader ecological context, the certification decision emphasises that the fishery removes less than 1 percent of the krill’s estimated total biomass and proposes even higher sustainability scores in the latest reassessment.
