Comparing The Krill And The Whale Industry

Many industries in our world today are dependent on or affected by each other; both negatively and positively. Two such industries are the Krill and the Whale industries. Krill are small crustaceans found in many of the Earth’s oceans. They are found in massive numbers in the cold southern oceans of the Antarctic and experience high productivity. Antarctic krill is the keystone species of the Antarctica ecosystem and is a food source for multiple species, which includes whales. In addition to being a food source for animals found in the ecosystem, krill are harbored as food for fish farms as well as for krill oil. Krill oil contains the essential nutrient, choline and an antioxidant, astaxanthin. Recently a new product category, derived from

Krill are secondary producers that consume phytoplankton. Phytoplankton is most productive in colder waters near the Arctic and Antarctic. Krill flourish in polar waters because there is so much more phytoplankton in the summer months than in the tropics. Cold waters have greater nutrient levels and can support more primary productivity (Harrison and Cota, 1991). This is because there is more upwelling at the poles that brings nutrients to the surface. Sea ice is crucial to the upwelling and movement of ocean currents that lead to the replenishing of nutrients. The formation of sea ice causes water dense with brine to sink and less dense water to rise. This process is what helps drive global oceanic currents and bring nutrients to the surface in cold waters. The effects of global warming cause the greatest increases in temperature to be at the north and south poles. The increasing temperatures reduce the amount of sea ice produced every year. Less sea ice means that less brine will sink and the upwelling process will slow and may even stop entirely. As this happens less and less nutrients are replenished by the reduced upwelling (Atkinson et al., 2001). This will cause a decline in krill populations because it will cause a decline in the phytoplankton that krill eat (Kirchman, Morán, and Ducklow, 2009). The severity of the decline of krill

This problem is made worse by the fact that Arctic and Antarctic oceans tend to be warming at a faster rate than more tropical and subtropical waters. This is also not a problem that we will likely to be able to make significant progress in fixing easily or quickly. Also, we still have much to learn about how it works and what it means for the globes ecosystems. What we do know is that the global levels of CO2 now reach over 400ppm and have continued to show a sharp increase since they have been accurately measured in the 1950s. This is also higher than any ice core samples taken all the way back to 350 thousand years ago. It is likely that this rise in CO2 has caused the .6 degree Celsius rise in temperature over the last 100 years (Root et al 2003). Though the effects of increased CO2 will continue to affect global climates, even if we stopped all CO2 production today, the sooner we start addressing the problem the better it will be. Being that the number one producer of CO2 from man is the burning of fossil fuels, it is imperative to the survival of the whaling and krill industries that this practice is phased out. This will be impossible to do overnight, as much of the world’s infrastructure depends on the energy produced by this practice. However there are