Antarctic krill: an unused biological resource in the food balance of Russia

Struggle for food resources is a stumbling block when it comes to search for new types of aquatic biological resources. Today, almost all water areas are distributed among individual states, 200-mile economic zones have been introduced, with their own established agreements and rules. Countries extracting aquatic bio resources and other industrialized states are paying great attention to the search for small-sized hydrobionts, that are still in low demand on the market. Among them is the Antarctic shrimp (krill). Antarctic krill is the most widespread zooplankton in the Southern Ocean. As a result of the Soviet krill program from 1971 to 1991, it became possible to catch krill in the amount of about 4.0 million tons. During the period of the most active catch during the Arctic season, krill production was approximately 350-400 thousand tons. However, since 1992 there has been no fishery for krill. During 2009–2010 years, several Russian companies carried out krill fishing expeditions with a total catch of 17,000 tons. There is still a big concern about the production of krill in the Federal Agency for Fisheries. In 2021, a meeting was held in Vladivostok on the topic «The resumption of the production of Antarctic krill by Russian fishing organizations and the construction of krill fishing vessels». The meeting addressed a wide range of issues related to the scientific expeditions, the availability of the necessary infrastructure, promising krill products, interaction with the CCAMLR on securing the right to catch Antarctic krill for Russian companies under the CCAMLR Convention. Domestic krill fishery and its development is possible only if the government provides modern competitive market tools that are strong enough to conquer in krill international trade.