Antarctic krill are the foundation of the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and their harvesting affects welfare across the food web.
Krill harvesting creates welfare concerns at multiple scales. For the krill themselves — small crustaceans with relatively simple nervous systems — whether the fishing process causes meaningful suffering is scientifically uncertain. For the predators that depend on krill — penguins, seals, blue whales, humpback whales — reduced krill availability causes food stress that is unambiguously experienced as suffering. Penguin chicks that starve because parents cannot find enough krill, seals with reduced body condition from poor foraging success, and whales traveling longer distances to find food all experience welfare harms traceable back to ecosystem-level krill depletion.