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November 7, 2026

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World

Krill talks in Antarctica end without a deal, leaving the Southern Ocean’s key species unprotected

Faizan Altaf

Two weeks of talks in Hobart, Australia, have ended without agreement on how to protect the Southern Ocean. Governments at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, known as CCAMLR, could not agree on a single new marine protected area or on new krill fishing rules, conservation groups said on Friday, 30 October 2026.

Krill are not just another catch. They are the food that holds the Southern Ocean together: whales, penguins, seals, fish and seabirds all depend on them, and they also help draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. When the fishery hits its limit earlier each year, and the rules that used to spread fishing across different areas have lapsed, the animals that eat krill are left competing with trawlers in the same small patches of sea.

The meeting brought together 27 member governments, including the United States, China and Russia. It ended, in the words of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, with “no meaningful outcomes” for ecosystems under pressure from fishing and climate change. WWF-Australia, on Saturday, 31 October, said countries had “again failed to strengthen protections for whales, penguins and seals”, and renewed its call for a moratorium on krill fishing until effective management measures are in place.

At a glance

What happened: Two weeks of CCAMLR talks in Hobart ended on Friday, 30 October 2026, without agreement on any new marine protected area in the Southern Ocean or on new precautionary rules for the Antarctic krill fishery.
Why it matters: Krill are the main food for whales, penguins, seals and many other Southern Ocean animals. The fishery has hit its catch limit early for two years in a row, and the rule that spread fishing across different areas lapsed in 2024.
What happens next: Governments agreed to keep talking between meetings, with hopes resting on the 2027 meeting for a Peninsula protected area, while WWF calls for a halt to krill fishing until safeguards are agreed.

What was decided — and what was not

CCAMLR manages fishing in the Southern Ocean and is meant to conserve its marine life. Its decisions are taken by consensus, so every member has to agree. In 2009, it committed to building a representative system of marine protected areas. Seventeen years later, only two exist: one around the South Orkney Islands and one in the Ross Sea region, agreed in 2016. Five more have been proposed, including a new one for East Antarctica from China this year, but none was agreed in Hobart.

The proposal that drew the most attention was the Domain 1 marine protected area around the Antarctic Peninsula. It was first put forward a decade ago by Argentina and Chile, who led the push again this year, with firm support from Brazil and Uruguay. The area is roughly the size of California — about 455,000 square kilometres in the version supported by the krill company Aker BioMarine — and would restrict fishing in feeding grounds used by penguins, seals and migratory whales.

No agreement was reached. For the tenth year in a row, CCAMLR’s members left Hobart without agreeing protections for the western Antarctic Peninsula, according to conservation groups that took part in the talks. There was one small step forward: many members agreed to keep working on the proposal and on krill management between meetings. Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, said “it is still regrettable that there are no meaningful outcomes”.

The commission also failed to agree on a modernised krill management approach, which would have spread catches across smaller areas. That idea had support from conservation groups and the fishing industry alike, but consensus was still out of reach.

Why krill matter so much

Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, are small, shrimp-like crustaceans, usually only a few centimetres long. Together they form one of the largest biomasses on the planet, gathering in swarms dense enough to colour the sea pink.

Almost everything else in the Southern Ocean eats them, or eats something that eats them. Baleen whales feed almost entirely on krill in the Antarctic summer. Chinstrap, Adélie and gentoo penguins feed krill to their chicks. Fur seals, crabeater seals and leopard seals depend on them too, as do many fish and seabirds. Remove too much krill where these animals feed, and the effects ripple through the whole food web.

Krill also matter for the climate: they feed on algae near the surface, then sink and release carbon-rich waste deep in the ocean, helping move carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Yet they need water colder than 4 degrees Celsius to survive, and as the Southern Ocean warms, they have started moving towards cooler waters closer to the South Pole, further from the fixed colonies where penguins, seals and whales breed.

A fishery that keeps hitting its limit early

For the main fishing area, Area 48, covering the Antarctic Peninsula and the Scotia Sea, CCAMLR sets a precautionary catch limit of 5.61 million tonnes. But fishing has to stop much earlier, at a trigger level of 620,000 tonnes, unless a more detailed system is in place to divide the catch between smaller areas. That trigger is about 11 per cent of the precautionary limit, and less than one per cent of the roughly 63 million tonnes of krill biomass estimated by a 2019 survey.

In practice, the fleet has been reaching that trigger level well before the season is meant to end. Krill fishing shut down early in August for the second year in a row, after trawlers, mostly from Norway and China, hit the 620,000-tonne limit. In 2025, Area 48 closed on 1 August; in 2026, it concluded in the week of 13 August, according to Aker BioMarine, but still months early.

The early closures are a symptom of a rule that is no longer there. Until 2024, a measure distributed krill fishing across different areas, so the whole catch could not be taken from one place. It was allowed to lapse in 2024 and has not been replaced. WWF-Australia said “the entire fishing quota could be taken from a small area around the Antarctic Peninsula, which is a critical feeding ground for marine species”.

That concentration is the heart of the dispute. The total catch may be small next to the total amount of krill, but boats go where krill are thickest — often the same bays and straits where penguins and seals feed their young. WWF-Australia said vessels “return to the same small regions every year and have sucked out millions of tonnes of krill from foraging grounds for wildlife in the past decade”.

The industry says it has taken voluntary steps: Aker BioMarine said nearly 90 per cent of Peninsula catches in 2026 were taken after 1 April, outside the penguin breeding season, and about 74,000 square kilometres of buffer zones around penguin colonies have been closed to fishing since 2019. WWF-Australia also warned krill fishing is “now poised to expand into East Antarctica, with nine vessels signalling their intent to fish in the area”.

What krill are used for

Most krill caught in the Southern Ocean is not eaten directly by people. It is processed into feed for farmed fish, and into krill oil, sold in red capsules as an omega-3 supplement marketed for heart, brain and joint health. Some is also used in pet food.

That end use is part of why the debate has become so heated. Sylvia Earle, the oceanographer who has become one of the most prominent voices calling for an end to the fishery, told the Associated Press in Rome on 28 October that krill were “critical to the integrity of the entire system — whales, fish, birds, seals, sea lions, you name it”. She said: “There is no sustainable extraction of krill in Antarctica possible, period.”

Earle, 91, was the first woman to serve as chief scientist of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 1990, and now leads Mission Blue. She argued there was no “safe number” that could be taken without harm, and said one company, Norway’s Aker BioMarine, was responsible for about two-thirds of the krill reaching the market. “Some of it goes to make krill oil that has been marketed as good for our health. Maybe it is, but at what cost to the environment?” she said.

The industry takes a very different view. Matts Johansen, chairman of Aker QRILL and chief executive of Aker BioMarine, who attended the Hobart talks, said “decades of independent science from multiple countries, including the latest assessment of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, support the sustainability of the Antarctic krill fishery”, and that the company supports “stronger science-based spatial management”.

Aker BioMarine pointed out that the FAO, in its 2026 State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report, named the Antarctic fishing areas a “global benchmark for precautionary, ecosystem-based fisheries management”, with all 15 stocks assessed, including krill, rated 100 per cent biologically sustainable. The company also supports the Domain 1 protected area and a modernised management approach.

Ten years of stalemate

The Hobart outcome fits a long pattern. CCAMLR has not designated a new marine protected area since the Ross Sea reserve in 2016, and the Peninsula proposal has now failed for a tenth year. The commission committed in 2009 to completing a representative system by 2012; that deadline passed 14 years ago, and the network is still only two areas strong.

Part of the problem is the consensus rule itself: any one of the 27 members can block a proposal. Some are fishing nations; some fear restrictions could set a precedent for other oceans; others support protection in principle but disagree on boundaries or fishing rules. The result, year after year, has been long negotiations that end with agreement to keep talking.

Conservation groups say the stakes are rising while the talks drag on: the Southern Ocean is warming, krill are moving, and the fleet is growing. WWF-Australia’s oceans manager, Emily Grilly, said: “Instead of reining in krill fishing, CCAMLR has left the door open for the fishery to expand into new areas of Antarctica without the safeguards this fragile ecosystem desperately needs.”

What happens next

The next step is the intersessional process agreed in Hobart, in which members will keep working on the Peninsula proposal and on krill management between annual meetings. Conservation groups hope that delivers an agreement at the next annual meeting in 2027. Grilly said Hobart had shown “encouraging progress”, renewing hopes “that an MPA could be established in this region in 2027”.

WWF is not waiting. It is calling for “an immediate moratorium on krill fishing until the management and protection of Antarctica is dramatically improved” — no fishing at all until new rules are agreed. That would need the same consensus missing for a decade. The industry argues for the opposite sequence: agree the protected area and the new management system together, and keep fishing under the existing limits meanwhile.

The calendar adds pressure: the first High Seas Treaty conference of parties is due in January, and governments have committed to protecting at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030. Grilly said that goal “cannot be achieved without marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean”.

Frequently asked questions

What is Antarctic krill?

Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, are small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the Southern Ocean. They gather in huge swarms and are the main food for whales, penguins, seals, fish and seabirds, and they help move carbon dioxide into deep water.

What is CCAMLR?

CCAMLR is the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the body that manages fishing in the Southern Ocean. It has 27 member governments, and its decisions are taken by consensus, so every member must agree.

What happened at the Hobart meeting in October 2026?

Two weeks of talks at CCAMLR’s 45th annual meeting in Hobart ended on Friday, 30 October 2026, without agreement on any new marine protected area or new krill rules. Members did agree to keep working on the Antarctic Peninsula proposal between meetings.

Why did the talks fail?

CCAMLR works by consensus, so any member can block a proposal. Governments disagree on the boundaries of protected areas, on fishing rules inside them, and on krill management. The Antarctic Peninsula proposal has now failed for ten years in a row.

What is the Domain 1 marine protected area?

It is a proposed marine protected area around the Antarctic Peninsula, first put forward by Argentina and Chile a decade ago. It covers roughly the area of California — about 455,000 square kilometres — and would restrict fishing in feeding grounds used by penguins, seals and whales.

Why does the krill fishery keep closing early?

Fishing in Area 48 must stop at a trigger level of 620,000 tonnes, unless a more detailed management system is in place. The fleet has hit that level early in August in both 2025 and 2026, because a rule that spread fishing across different areas lapsed in 2024 and has not been replaced.

What is WWF calling for?

WWF wants an immediate moratorium on Antarctic krill fishing until effective management measures are agreed. That would mean no krill fishing at all until new rules are in place.

What does the fishing industry say?

The industry, led by Norway’s Aker BioMarine, says the fishery is sustainable, pointing to a UN Food and Agriculture Organization assessment rating all 15 stocks in the area, including krill, as 100 per cent biologically sustainable.

What happens next?

Governments will keep talking between meetings, hoping for agreement on the Peninsula protected area at the next CCAMLR meeting in 2027. The first High Seas Treaty conference of parties is also due in January, and governments have committed to protecting at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030.

Conclusion

The Hobart talks ended the way so many Antarctic meetings have ended: warm words about progress, an agreement to keep talking, and no new protection on the water. But the numbers are not footnotes: a fishery that hits its limit in August, a rule that spreads fishing out missing since 2024, nine vessels signalling they want to fish in East Antarctica, and a protected area first proposed a decade ago that still does not exist.

The case for waiting is that the total catch is small next to the total amount of krill. The case against waiting is that krill are not spread evenly across the ocean, and neither are the animals that eat them.

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

Sources

Faizan Altaf

Faizan Altaf is the founder and author of findivoza.com, a news blog covering world, Pakistan, business, technology, health and sport in plain English. He writes for general readers who want clear, trustworthy news without jargon. His work focuses on explaining what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next.

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