How humans are taking whale food and feeding it to cats and dogs

Whales in Antarctica are competing for food with commercial fishing trawlers sucking up vast quantities of Antarctic krill to turn into pet food, health supplements and farmed salmon feed.

Mining and oil drilling are banned in Antarctica by international treaty but industrial fishing remains legal as efforts to increase marine protection were thwarted last year.

A whale swimming near a krill fishing boat on Sea Shepherd’s recent Antarctic voyage.Credit: Sea Shepherd

Peter Hammarstedt, captain of Sea Shepherd’s ship Allankay on its recent Antarctic voyage, said whale numbers had increased since whaling was banned in international waters but their food source was under threat from climate change and unsustainable fishing practices.

“We’re literally taking whale and penguin food to feed to cats and dogs,” Hammarstedt said.

“I remember seeing a whale harpooned and it took 22 minutes to die, with every agonising minute narrated by a helicopter pilot. Krill are small, shrimp-like crustaceans, so people don’t empathise in the same way, but I see it as a continuation of protecting whales by protecting their ecosystem and food source.”

A University of Santa Cruz study published in 2023 found in 2017, after a year in which krill were abundant, 86 per cent of the humpback females sampled were pregnant. In 2020, after a year when krill were less abundant, it declined to 29 per cent.

Hammarstedt said research suggested when whales were hungry they start consuming their own blubber, which releases any toxins from chemical pollution stored in their fat.

WWF Antarctic conservation manager Emily Grilly said there was also evidence that climate change and krill fishing were affecting populations of Adelie penguins.

“The issue with krill fishing is it’s allowed to spatially concentrate, so vessels that pump krill from the ocean go to the same places every year and it causes local depletion, which is a problem for the animals located in those regions,” Grilly said.

On the Antarctic voyage a month ago the Sea Shepherd crew saw nine supertrawlers at Coronation Island. Hammarstedt said most years the trawlers move to the Antarctic peninsula in about April, after the ecotourism boats leave.

“These are monstrous ships with fish holds the size of two Olympic pools,” he said. “Whales get 96 per cent of their energy from krill. One ship can take 500 tonnes of krill a day, as much as 150 humpbacks eat in a day.

“It’s like a dystopian, post-apocalyptic David Attenborough documentary where you have penguins swimming on one side and a massive trawler on the other.”

Sea Shepherd managing director Jeff Hansen (left) with Captain Peter Hammarstedt in Sydney.Credit: Nikki Short

Hammarstedt said he supported changing the law to prevent unsustainable krill fishing but consumer demand needed to shift, too.

The krill are caught as a source of Omega-3 for health supplements, with the manufacturers often labelling the product as “coming from the pristine, unpolluted waters of Antarctica”.

Krill are also used as an additive to the feed in commercial salmon farms to turn the flesh of the fish pink, and Hammarstedt said there was an emerging market to add it to dog and cat food.

Last year, at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), Australia pushed to expand marine parks in eastern Antarctica. Sources close to the discussion said the motion had support from 25 member nations but was vetoed by China and Russia.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the failure to secure unanimous support was disappointing but Australia would continue to push for greater protection of the Southern Ocean and its marine creatures.

This also included through Australia’s exclusive economic zones.

Chinstrap penguins on the ice in Antarctica with supertrawlers in the background.Credit: Sea Shepherd

“Last year we tripled the size of the Macquarie Island Marine Park, placing an area the size of Germany under high protection,” Plibersek said.

Conservation groups including WWF and the Save Our Marine Life alliance are pushing for Australia to also declare marine parks in Heard and McDonald Islands.

Britain recently expanded no-fishing and no-krill fishing zones in South Georgia, which it regards as an overseas territory.

CCAMLR will hold a scientific symposium in July to examine krill fishing.

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