Antarctic krill is one of the richest biological resources in the world, with a total biomass of 650 million to 1 billion tons. Since the 1960s, countries around the world have begun to build specialized krill fishing boats, scrambling to run to the South Atlantic "enclosure", precisely for the purpose of harvesting Antarctic krill.
In 2009, China officially listed Antarctic krill as a "national economic strategic resource" – which means that after the Soviet Union, Japan, and Norway, the Antarctic krill industry is likely to usher in new "seed players". Over the past decade, domestic distant-water fishing companies have shown great enthusiasm for the development of Antarctic krill, and the demand for fishing vessel design and construction has also increased.
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba)
Since 2007, the global Antarctic krill industry has entered the "Norwegian era". With China's entry, Norway's position has been greatly challenged; at the same time, Russia and South Korea have also built new krill fishing vessels, and a new round of fierce competition will officially begin in 2020. Therefore, both China and Norway are currently facing unprecedented competitive pressure.
Antarctic krill is extremely abundant, with about 300 million tonnes of krill eaten annually by baleen whales, seals, penguins, seabirds and Antarctic fish, with less than 0.5% of seal consumption in commercial fishing by humans and only 528,000 tonnes of global fishing in history (see figure below for details).
Historical global Antarctic krill catches from 1973 to 2013
Due to the sheer volume of resources, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has been established internationally, an organization dedicated to the commercial exploitation and conservation of Antarctic krill, as well as a "threshold of entry" – only by joining this international organization and complying with quota restrictions can krill be properly harvested in Antarctic waters.
CCAMLR divides the natural distribution of Antarctic krill into different fishing areas, with the most abundant resource area being Zone 48 near the South Atlantic. It is conservatively estimated that there are at least 40 million to 60 million tons of krill resources in District 48, even if the amount of resources does not continue to grow, it is enough for all mankind to develop for about 200 years.
Zone 48: The "Golden Fishing Ground" of Antarctic Krill
For humanity's current development capacity, Antarctic krill resources seem to be "unlimited supply". But even so, there is an international catch trigger limit of 620,000 tons. In other words, once the krill catch reaches or exceeds 620,000 tons, Areas 48 and 58 will be further subdivided into sub-regions, and new management schemes will be adopted, which is also an artificial "ceiling" for the protection of krill resources.
In the past 2018-2019 fishing season, the global Antarctic krill catch reached 380,000 tons, which is still far from the limit of 620,000 tons. Therefore, in the next few years, countries around the world still have a lot of "room to play".
Fresh Antarctic krill
However, for the commercial exploitation of Antarctic krill, the fishing capacity of the vessel is not a manifestation of "hard power" – the processing capacity is. How many krill products can eventually be transported back to China by distant-water fishing vessels ultimately depends on how many krill fishing vessels can process, which is also the "fatal shortcoming" of many traditional fishing countries.
Unlike the offshore fish shrimp and shellfish, Antarctic krill are far from industrial and domestic pollution, and all groups are pure natural wild shrimp, so the quality is very high. In addition, the caught krill is easy to deteriorate in the short term, if the processing capacity of the ship can not keep up, then it will not only cause a great waste of resources, but also pollute the Antarctic environment, the cost of energy consumption of the ship will also increase.
Antarctic krill fishing has the characteristics of "tight time and heavy task", which can also be found in the biology of krill.
Antarctic krill have highly active hydrolases in the body, and when the krill dies, these enzymes will quickly break down the protein tissue in the body, so the caught krill must be processed immediately. If it is to be processed into human food, then all krill must be processed within 3 hours, and if it is made into aquatic or livestock feed, then at least within 10 hours.
Quality testing of Antarctic krill
Because of this, various fishing countries have invested a lot of costs in the processing capacity of ships, and have upgraded their processing equipment. In the past decade, Norway's krill catch accounts for 61.9% of the global total, and its "winning magic weapon" lies in new equipment and new technologies.
It is worth mentioning that Japan has also been a world-class krill fishing country in the past, and set a record for the highest catch of 73,000 tons in 2001. After 13 years of "leading the way", Japan's distant-water fishing vessels are gradually aging, their production capacity has dropped significantly, and they have begun to be inferior in competition with emerging countries. In 2013, Japan completely withdrew from the development of Antarctic krill, and the reason for being eliminated had a lot to do with processing capacity.
When it comes to processing capacity, let's take a look at today's "krill brother" - Norway. Norway's Aker is the global industry leader in Antarctic krill, and its business scope is quite extensive, with a complete industrial chain of ship type process development, resource survey, krill terminal product research and development, production and sales.
Currently, Norway's krill fishing vessels can process 350,000 tonnes of Antarctic krill per year – almost the sum of the current global krill catches. Among Norwegian shrimp fishing vessels, the largest is 6000 kilowatts, and the smallest is 3960 kilowatts, and the main products processed are krill powder and krill concentrate.
What is even more shocking is that at the beginning of 2019, Aker built a new professional-grade Ocean-going shrimp fishing vessel (Antarctic Endurance), which is expected to process 1,200 tons of fresh shrimp per day and have an annual processing capacity of more than 150,000 tons. In addition, Norway's Rimbrost enterprise is also building a large 120-meter-long shrimp fishing vessel, which is expected to start official operations in 2022.
Norway's Professional Grade Shrimp Fishing Vessel (Antarctic Endurance)
After talking about Norway, let's talk about China.
Antarctic krill is vital to China's economic development. In fact, as early as the 1980s, China was already laying out related industries. When the Chinese expedition team first arrived at The South Pole in 1985, one of the key objects of investigation was Antarctic krill. Antarctic krill was also highlighted in the "863 Plan" the following year, and in the recent strategic documents such as the "13th Five-Year Plan for Fisheries Science and Technology Development", the development of Antarctic krill has also been regarded as a key project.
It is heartening that China already has a number of Antarctic krill fishing and processing vessels, such as "Fu Rong Hai", "Longteng", "Deep Blue", "Longfa" and so on. By the way, after Japan withdrew from the commercial competition for Antarctic krill, in 2012 it sold the only remaining krill fishing vessel in china to China, which was transformed into the current "Fu Rong Hai".
Fishing vessel parameters in major countries of the world
Here we highlight the "Deep Blue", the ship has a total length of 114.88 meters, a total tonnage of 7800 tons, and the international advanced crossbar pump suction technology is also adopted in the fishing method. So far, the "Deep Blue" can be called the "benchmark work" of China's Antarctic krill fishing and processing vessels, representing the highest level of krill processing capacity of domestic fishing vessels.
The annual fishing and processing capacity of the "Deep Blue" is more than 70,000 tons, up to 100,000 tons, and the ship is also equipped with frozen shrimp processing lines, shrimp meat processing lines and shrimp meal processing lines, which can meet different processing needs.
Dark Blue (simulation)
In terms of processing capacity, the current China is not as good as Norway, but it is not impossible to surpass Norway in the future. According to statistics, the total number of fishing vessels in China exceeds 1 million, of which the number of distant-water fishing vessels is close to 3,000, which is second to none in the world, and its comprehensive strength is quite strong.
In addition, China already has the ability to independently produce large-scale fishing and processing vessels (more than 100 meters), and hardware problems are no longer a constraint. In addition, as China's offshore fishery resources gradually dry up, the importance of distant-water fisheries will be further highlighted, and Antarctic krill will become one of the most important fishing objects in China.
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