And the krill may be hunted to the point of extinction...
Krill is the chief food source of baleen whales including the blue whale. Reddish in appearance, the tiny crustaceans are swallowed in vast quantities by the whales, sieved out of seawater using the bristly baleen plates in their mouths.
Whales in turn sustain phytoplankton – a vital food source for krill, small fish, and crustaceans – by eating krill and then defecating. This releases iron in the whale’s krill diet back into the water to boost both phytoplankton numbers and krill. Healthy whale populations support the recycling of resources and if numbers drop it has a negative impact.
Just great. Now we are going to steal food from whales.
Whales in turn sustain phytoplankton – a vital food source for krill, small fish, and crustaceans – by eating krill and then defecating. This releases iron in the whale’s krill diet back into the water to boost both phytoplankton numbers and krill. Healthy whale populations support the recycling of resources and if numbers drop it has a negative impact.
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Interesting science. My wife learned the benefits of krill a couple years back. We added it to our daily supplements.
I know that there are a lot of scare tactics out there about Krill Oil, but it doesn’t make any sense. These are among the most abundant forms of life in the sea. The numbers aren’t even close.
Let’s suppose you’re talking about an ounce of Krill Oil. Since this is at the bottom of the food chain, you get a high ratio of Krill Oil to Krill: approximately 40 percent. For Salmon oil, the ratio is around 6,000 mg per pound, which is way less than for Krill Oil. Further, the salmon has to ingest a lot of oil to leave residual oil for us to consume.
Now, a Baleen Whale ingests 4 tons of krill per day, which amounts to around 1,400 tons per year. Let’s suppose there are 1000 baleen whales (I’m sure that the number is much higher). So we have ~ 14,000,000 tons total.
Let’s suppose an average person eats two pounds of Krill Oil a year and that we have 10 million oil consumers. The amount consumed is 20 million pounds, which requires about 35 million pounds of krill animal. This amounts to around 18 tons of krill needed per year. This is about 40 percent of what one whale consumes per year — so this is about three days of what one Baleen whale consumes per year!
The numbers aren’t even close in absolute terms, and are much more economical that consuming Salmon Oils.