| Summary: | Antarctic krill or Euphausia superba is considered as a central component to the Antarctic food web. It has been written that different parts of the marine ecosystem are made up of predators that rely directly or indirectly on the heath of the krill within the system (Gascón & Werner, 2005). It is one of the most successful animal species on the plant, with a biomass that may be the largest of any creature on the planet, is recorded as having the largest aggregation of marine life and have the most powerful prteolytic enzymes found on earth (Gascón & Werner, 2005). As krill mature, they congregate in swarms or schools, with thousands of krill packed into a cubic metre of water, which can be kilometres deep or wide (Gascón & Werner, 2005). This swarming behaviour is what is attractive to commercial fishing. Mostly these swarms form at depth, and only rise to the surface at night (Nicol & Endo, 1999), which then causes a feeding frenzy for surface predators when they appear.
|
|---|