There is a lot of "food" stored under the Antarctic ice sheet, and it is not a problem to feed hundreds of millions of people. When you think of food, what comes to mind? Corn, or wheat? What about the mention of Antarctica? Do you think of the bitter cold winds, the endless ice sheets, or the cute Antarctic creatures? But if these two words are put together, many people will find it incredible. At a glance, it was all ice, not a little dirt. No matter how you look at it, it's hard to associate Antarctica with food. So where did the "grain" under the aforementioned Antarctic ice sheet come from?
Could it be that cold-resistant crops are grown from the Antarctic ice sheet? Of course not, the grain we are talking about today is not grown in the soil, but swims in the sea. It is the krill, which is about 6 cm long. Many friends who like to fish have been exposed to krill, but they may not have thought that this small krill can feed us hundreds of millions of people. And there is also a place that feels incredible, that is, although the krill thing has the word shrimp in its name, it actually has nothing to do with the shrimp we usually eat.
From a taxonomic point of view, krill belongs to the order krill, while the lobsters we often eat belong to the order pontiple, and they also have some differences in appearance. Krill is the species closest to the bottom of the food chain and is the meal on the plate for many animals. In Antarctica, about half of all krill are eaten by whales, seals, penguins and other animals every year, but this still does not affect the reproduction of krill populations. In the Southern Ocean, krill can even reach a density of 10,000 to 30,000 per cubic meter, making it the undoubted "cornerstone species".
The first reason is the huge number of krill
Don't look at its small one, it may only weigh a few grams, but it can't stand the number of ah. It is one of the most resourced mono-species organisms on Earth, with an estimated ton of about a billion tons of Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean alone.
Although it is half eaten by other animals every year, there are still hundreds of millions of tons of krill that can continue to reproduce. And krill are also very reproductive, they generally mate in the spring and spawn in the summer. Each female krill can spawn multiple times in the summer, up to thousands of grains each time, so it's not hard to see why the krill that are eaten hundreds of millions of tons a year are still not extinct.
In addition, the abundance of food also ensures the survival of krill, most of which are omnivorous, and they usually feed mainly on phytoplankton and some zooplankton that are smaller than them. And these foods are ubiquitous in the ocean, so krill don't need to worry about not being able to find food.
The second reason is the high nutritional value of krill
Although it is small, it is full of treasures. It has the characteristics of typical high protein, low fat, its fresh meat contains 18% protein, the comprehensive nutritional value of 17 kinds of amino acids exceeds the shrimp, beef and other foods with high protein content that we are familiar with, and it is the organism with the highest protein content known at present, so krill is also known as the "world protein resource library".
In addition to its edible value, krill itself has a high medical value. Phospholipids, unsaturated fatty acids, astaxanthins and other substances in the krill body have important medical and health value. Therefore, krill with large numbers and high nutritional value have naturally become the object of competition around the world.
Since the 1980s, krill has gradually entered people's field of vision with feed-grade dried shrimp powder and frozen raw shrimp meat, and the use of krill as an auxiliary ingredient for aquaculture has once become the main driving force for the development of the krill industry. Although the biggest demand for Antarctic krill is still from the aquaculture industry, the krill industry is gradually diversifying, and there are already krill kernels, krill cakes, canned krill, dried krill and other products.
And with the development of science and technology, krill products have gained a broad space for development in the development of biopharmaceuticals and health care products. In our country, it is still relatively rare to eat krill directly, and most of the krill is still used as feed for aquaculture or other processed products. But in Japan and Russia, people generally eat shrimp directly. Friends who have eaten canned krill say that the taste of krill is still good. However, I need to remind everyone here that although krill is good, you can't eat more. Because krill contains the substance fluoride, if the intake is excessive, it will still be harmful to our body.
Canned krill
Although krill has not yet appeared as the main food of mankind, our fishing for krill began as early as the early 1960s. The Soviet Union was once the world's largest krill catch, once accounting for more than 80% of the total Antarctic krill catch. According to statistics, in 1982, the total catch of Antarctic krill in the world was 528,000 tons, of which the Soviet Union caught 491,700 tons, accounting for 93% of the total global krill fishing, which is the absolute first in the world.
Since then, the Soviet Union's krill catch has remained at about 300,000 tons, and even when it collapsed in 1991, the Soviet Union still caught 249,000 tons of krill that year. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, as the "eldest son", inherited the Soviet shrimp-catching equipment, but did not continue the glory of the Soviet period, but slowly withdrew from the krill fishing industry. After that, Japan succeeded the Soviet Union as the leader of the krill fishing industry, but due to the limitations of the domestic population and other factors, Japan has never been able to achieve the glory of the former Soviet Union.
Today, the title of the world's largest krill fishing nation has finally reached Norway's hands after several twists and turns. In 2007, Norway's catch reached 40,000 tons, far more than the former "number one" Japan, and the Antarctic krill fishing industry has entered an era dominated by new technologies. China's krill fishing industry started late, and it was only in 2009 that krill fishing operations in Antarctica began. And at that time, many of the large fishing vessels involved in Antarctic fishing in China were imported second-hand fishing boats or modified boats. But in 2017, China's first Antarctic krill ship began construction, providing a solution for China's krill fishing. That year, China's krill catch was about 38,000 tons, and the number was still small, only 24% of Norway's catch, which was still a big gap compared with the world's old krill fishing countries.
Speaking of which, you should already understand the importance of krill to our lives. Then some people may be worried, if we fish for krill in Antarctica, will it cause the extinction of Antarctic krill or adversely affect the ecological environment of Antarctica? As it stands, krill fishing in Antarctica will not cause krill extinction. This is not only because the krill we mentioned earlier have super reproductive ability, but also because there are some rules and regulations. The 1993 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources established catch quotas for Antarctic krill. On the one hand, this avoids the risk of krill extinction due to human overfishing, and on the other hand, it also protects other wildlife in Antarctica. Because krill is the ration for most organisms, if the situation of krill becomes dangerous, other animals living in Antarctica, such as penguins and whales, will also face the risk of extinction.
In addition to issuing international conventions, many krill fishing companies have carried out spontaneous marine conservation activities. On December 11, 2020, the Krill Enterprises Association, formed by the world's eight major krill fishing companies, announced that it will implement a year-round autonomous fishing ban in the Bay of Hope area of the Antarctic Peninsula to support the establishment of a large-scale marine protected area in such an ecologically sensitive area. In the face of the abundant Antarctic krill resources, we should use them on the basis of protection. Guarding Antarctica and banning fishing independently should be a new starting point.