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Antarctic krill. BY JOSH. What are Antarctic Krill?. Tiny like a mini-prawn, Antarctic Krill are 5 centimetres long, weigh 1 gram and can live up to a maximum age of 6 years.
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Antarctic krill BY JOSH
What are Antarctic Krill? • Tiny like a mini-prawn, Antarctic Krill are 5 centimetres long, weigh 1 gram and can live up to a maximum age of 6 years. • They are a very important part of the Antarctic marine environment – because fish, birds whales and hundreds of different animals all feed on krill. • Without krill most life forms in the Antarctic would disappear.
How do they survive? • Antarctic Krill can swim down to 100 metres below the surface during the day. • At night they drift up the water column towards the surface where they find phytoplankton to eat. • But they have to be careful they don’t get eaten themselves.
Special features • Antarctic Krill are the largest of the 85 known krill species. • They live in swarms, some of these swarms are so big and dense they can even be seen from space! • The total weight of all Antarctic Krill is more than the total weight of all humans on earth.
Where is Krill found? • They are found in various parts of the Antarctic ocean, in different amounts. • Antarctic Krill is located in high quantities closest to the ice. • This map shows where Antarctic Krill is found.
How do Antarctic Krill breed? • Krill spawn eggs in several “broods” • Krill may release eggs multiple times per season • The spawning season can last as long as 5 months • They are ready to breed after 3 years • Both female and male Krill are required to reproduce
Where in the food chain are they? Code: whale E=Eat E A=Absorb Krill E phytoplankton A sun
Changes in Krill environment • In the Antarctic waters, sea ice population is decreasing because of climate change. This impacts Krill since they feed on sea ice algae • Antarctic Krill comes from aquaculture industry, which is running out of food to sustain it’s rapid growth • Fish farming uses 75% of worlds fish oil 40% of it’s fish meal- which could reach 79% and 48% respectively by the end of this decade
How to stop krill declining • Krill are very dependent on climate for their survival. Their ability to reproduce is dependent on having enough food like sea ice algae. • Climate change depletes sea ice as it melts. • So to help save Krill we can try to stop eroding their environment