Increased fishing of krill is putting pressure on the krill biomass levels.
Estimates of the global krill biomass are significantly down, ranging from 62 to 137 million tonnes. Previously the figure quoted was 500 million tonnes. Possible reasons for the differences in the figures include: underestimation of the range of krill, under estimates of krill density by acoustics and over estimation of krill demand by predators.
A cooperative survey by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in 2000 for the first time aims to update the crustaceans biomass in the main fishing area between South Georgia and Antarctic Peninsular waters, and survey the future food source.