The krill fishing vessel, Hu Xing Hai, trawls next to a whale in Antarctica.
Sea Shepherd
- Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation organization best known for high-profile anti-whaling campaigns, launches its first dedicated science mission, hoping data will drive policy change.
- This week, a team of independent researchers joined a Sea Shepherd vessel near the South Orkney Islands to gather data on industrial krill fishing and recovering whale populations.
- This expedition was spurred by images from tourists on an Antarctic cruise who documented krill super trawlers dragging nets near 1,000 feeding whales.
A Record Whale Gathering—And An Unsettling Discovery
On January 13, 2022 tourists exploring Antarctica aboard the National Geographic Endurance sailed upon something “truly groundbreaking,” said Matthew Savoca, an ecologist with the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.
With cameras flashing, these lucky cruise ship tourists witnessed upwards of 1,000 fin whales spouting—the largest gathering of baleen whales seen in decades, since industrial whaling ended. Along with a few humpbacks, those fin whales were gorging on their favorite food: krill, a pinky-sized, shrimp-like crustacean that forms the base of the food web in the Southern Ocean.
But the excitement onboard was dampened when the tourists spotted four krill super trawlers dragging massive nets right through the middle of the feeding whales.
Savoca’s colleague, zoologist Conor Ryan, was a resident naturalist aboard the cruise. When Savoca saw the photos and videos of the incident, he “felt super strongly that we needed to publish this”, Savoca told me in a phone interview.
“I study whale conservation in the Antarctic and I know that krill fishing exists, but I didn’t realize that it exists on top of pods of feeding whales. And I don’t think other people recognize that, either,” Savoca said.
A small boat from Sea Shepherd documents wildlife activity near the krill super trawler Antarctic Endurance.
Sea Shepherd
Along with four other co-authors, Savoca and Ryan published their findings in Ecology in February 2023. The observations were the first widely circulated evidence of the potential conflict between recovering baleen whales and the expanding krill fishery in the Southern Ocean.
It sparked global scrutiny of the krill fishery—including a new campaign from Sea Shepherd to protect whales: Operation Antarctica Defense.
But instead of using the confrontation-style advocacy Sea Shepherd is known for, the nonprofit is turning to data to drive change.
This week, Sea Shepherd brought four independent scientists, including Savoca, aboard their vessel Allankay to document how the krill fishing industry is impacting whales and other wildlife near the remote South Orkney Islands. It’s the nonprofit’s first-ever dedicated science mission.
Krill Fishing—Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
Among those impacted by the 2022 images was Peter Hammarstedt, chief campaigns officer and a captain for Sea Shepherd Global. Hammarstedt spent a decade chasing the last remaining whaling ship out of the Antarctic—and he thought the whales in the Southern Ocean were safe.
Until he read the Ecology report and saw that “krill super trawlers are indirectly killing whales” by scooping up the marine mammals’ main food source, Hammastedt told me in a phone interview.
“After dedicating my entire adult life to protecting the Antarctic from whalers, I came to the conclusion that the latest and greatest threat to whales is industrial fishing,” Hammarstedt said.
Captain Peter Hammarstedt, campaigns officer for Sea Shepherd Global, documents the activity of the krill super trawler Shen Lan.
Sea Shepherd
For the past three years, Sea Shepherd has sent a vessel down to monitor the overlap between krill super trawlers and feeding whales. “We’ve been able to determine that this is happening on a daily basis,” Hammarstedt said.
Part of why this potential conflict between krill fishing and feeding whales didn’t catch the public’s attention sooner is because the super trawlers tend to avoid the Antarctic Peninsula where cruise ships full of tourists voyage from December through March.
Instead, the super trawlers fish the rougher waters near the South Orkney Islands during the Austral summer.
“The ships are hanging out at South Orkney to hide away from the cameras. And that’s one of the reasons why we have to bring the cameras to them,” Hammarstedt said.
Can New Data Drive Policy Change In Antarctica?
Unlike the illegal whale poachers that Sea Shepherd is famous for exposing, krill fishing is legal—and even marketed as sustainable. Krill are used in dietary supplements, pet food, and for aquaculture fish feed. They are also the main food source for penguins, whales and seals in Antarctica.
A total global catch trigger limit was set by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the international organization that manages the Southern Ocean fishery.
Changing policy around a legal fishery requires scientific data to prove why change is needed, Hammarstedt told me.
“Every year there are more ships competing over the same krill catch trigger limit,” Hammarstedt said. “It’s one thing for Sea Shepherd to see that and report on it. It’s an entirely different thing for independent researchers to be able to gather data and present that data to the people who make policy.”
The krill industry maintains that the annual catch trigger limit—capped at roughly 620,000 metric tons—represent only about 1% of total krill biomass in the South Atlantic. But critics argue that these figures are misleading because all of the krill is caught in one small area.
Until recently, krill catches were distributed across subregions of the Southern Ocean. That spatial allocation expired last year, allowing the full amount to be taken from a single area. This change concerns both scientists and conservationists.
“It’s as if I told you: ‘They’re shooting 1% of the deer in the entire United States’, but then I neglect to mention that 100% of the deer are being shot in Delaware,” Hammarstedt said.
Penguins and birds feed next to the krill fishing boat Fu Xing Hai Da Lian.
Sea Shepherd
Science Expedition In Earth’s Least Studied Ocean
One goal of the science team now aboard Allankay is to collect data on the spatial distribution of krill, as well as use drones to measure the distance between whales and super trawlers.
“It’s all about the particulars of how and where they’re fishing for krill. If you take that entire catch out of a tiny bit of ocean—which also happens to be a highly concentrated whale feeding zone—that might be a big deal,” said Ted Cheeseman, a marine biologist with University of California Santa Cruz.
Cheeseman is co-leading the month-long scientific expedition with Savoca. Both Cheeseman and Savoca emphasized the importance of this opportunity to collect data in one the least studied oceans in the world. The team will also be identifying marine mammals through photos and acoustic methods, and taking biopsy samples of whales they encounter.
“We think this zone around the South Orkney Islands may have the highest biomass of whales of anywhere on the planet,” Cheeseman said.
But the scientists and their data collection are also at the whim of the rough Southern Ocean. “The place is ferocious,” said Cheeseman, who has been to the Antarctic dozens of times. “You have to deal with huge swells or big wind. Then on the days when it’s calm, the fog rolls in.”
For Sea Shepherd, this science mission may signal a new era of ocean activism—one where data may prove to be the most powerful lever for change.
“Where the research will be conducted is one of the least studied areas of ocean in the world, and it may possibly be the single most important feeding ground for whales in the world,” Hammarstedt said. “It’s also where these krill super trawlers are taking a foundational species out of the Antarctic ecosystem.”
Sea Shepherd will provide updates on its 2026 expedition through a video mini-series at: seashepherdglobal.org/antarctica