Target: Marianne Sivertsen Næss, Norway Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Policy
Goal: Join in efforts to establish protected areas for krill populations at risk from overfishing.
They are only the size of a paperclip, yet they have an enormously outsized impact on their ecosystems and environment. The tiny crustaceans known as Antarctic krill provide a primary source of food for penguins, seals, and even whales. They also cleanse the atmosphere of up to 12 billion tons of planet-warming carbon every year. Relentless overfishing, however, has put these vital organisms in the crosshairs.
Populations of krill in the Antarctic have dropped drastically, to a level scientists deem “unsustainable.” The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – comprised of 27 nations – was supposed to deploy a vast network of marine protected areas (where trawling would be severely curbed or outright abolished) over a decade ago. But to date, politics have allowed the creation of just two such areas. Powerful players in krill fishing have blocked expansion, and Russia even recently went so far as to arrest a scientist who had promoted fishing restrictions.
Sign the petition below to call on the world’s leading krill trawler, Norway, to lead the way in conserving and protecting this vital resource.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Minister Sivertsen Næss,
By some estimates, Norway accounts for two-thirds of Antarctic krill catch in any given year. Scientists are sounding the alarm about the “unsustainable” and rapidly dwindling levels of these vital crustaceans. Without krill, billions of tons more carbon would be unleashed into the atmosphere and entire marine ecosystems would collapse. The environmental and economic ramifications would be unthinkable.
Please do everything in your power to help break the standstill that has incapacitated the CCAMLR and its long-overdue network of marine protected areas. Be a responsible steward of these critical animals and bolster their numbers before the damage becomes irreversible.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: User: Uwe kils
