Krill Oil FAQs

krill oil

What is krill?

Krill is a generic term used to designate a number of deep water marine crustacean species, which are a form of shellfish. They look like miniature shrimp, ranging between one and six centimeters in length. These 85 species represent the planet's most abundant animal biomass, found in active zones that may extend over several square kilometers. Our Neptune Krill Oil (NKO®) is a patented material of one species, Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), that comes from Neptune Biotech and is sourced from the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean.

Studies indicate that the biomass of Antarctic krill, one of the world's most abundant biomasses, may amount to 379 million tonnes (tons). The annual, natural reproduction cycle of this biomass provides enough krill to offset natural mortality, feed predators, provide harvest for animal feed, and supply food for people.

How is krill harvesting managed?

The management and control of krill harvesting is overseen by the 25-state member Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which is the official international organization responsible for krill fishery management. The precautionary catch limits on krill fisheries are under constant review by the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR, which uses an ecosystem approach to management.

The precautionary catch limit set by the CCAMLR to ensure sustainability is reviewed annually and reset based on current population studies. However, only a fraction of that precautionary catch limit is actually harvested annually. In recent years, the precautionary catch limit in the Antarctic fishery used by Neptune was been around 2.7% of the total biomass, but less than 0.6% of the biomass was actually harvested annually.

Not only is the krill harvest overseen by scientists stationed on each ship who report to an independent regulatory commission, but the amount of krill harvested for human nutrition is only a tiny percentage of the total harvest, with the vast majority going into fish food and animal feed.

Neptune has earned Friend of the Sea certification for its sustainable krill harvesting standards. Friend of the Sea is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), whose mission is the conservation of the marine habitat. Friend of the Sea is a leading international certification project for products originated from both sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.

What have other reputable sources said in regard to how Antarctic krill is harvested with respect to sustainability?

(The statistics cited vary with the source/date of each citation):




NASA Earth Sciences Division

Australian government Department of the Environment and Water Resources

“The management of Antarctic krill fisheries occupied a major part of the recent meeting of the Antarctic marine management organisation (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources or CCAMLR) in Hobart. Delegates at the meeting agreed to a range of new measures to control fishing for krill in various areas of the Antarctic.”
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition

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