Certification of Krill Fishery Draws Protest From Conservation Group

The decision by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to certify an Antarctic krill fishery as environmentally sustainable has drawn a sharp protest from the Pew Environmental Group. The MSC, which has certified 67 fisheries worldwide as sustainable, decided this week to put its seal of approval on an Antarctic krill fishery run by Aker BioMarine, a Norwegian company that catches 40,000 to 50,000 tons of Antarctic krill annually and uses it to make a krill-oil dietary supplement, known as Superba. The Pew Environmental Group said certifying an Antarctic krill fishery could set a dangerous precedent and possibly lead to the overfishing of the species, a shrimp-like creature that is the key link in the Antarctic food chain. Pew accused the MSC of ignoring “irrefutable evidence” of the potential harm of expanded krill fishing and of giving the impression that the Antarctic krill fishery is sustainable, when it is not. But the MSC said fishing pressure on krill is very low — less than one percent of total biomass annually.