Krill feed on phytoplankton, microscopic, single-celled plants that drift near the ocean’s surface and live off carbon dioxide and the sun’s rays. ... Krill live in Antarctic waters, where they take advantage of ice cover in colder months to scavenge food and grow in a protected area. Related Questions. Skim feeders, like right whales, swim through krill- or plankton-rich areas of water with their mouths open. The whale then uses its tongue to direct the krill and other food down its throat. As ice melt increases in the region, krill habitats are diminishing and some populations are dropping by as much as 80%. Krill are at the bottom of the food chain in Antarctica. The Antarctic krill inhabits a variety of habitats throughout its life cycle, with adults more often associated with deeper waters, especially during winter, while juveniles are usually found at the surface of inshore waters, beneath the sea ice. If they die out everything else above them in the food chain will be adversely affected. Photographed by Uwe Kils. Food and water flow in but only water can flow back out through the baleen plates. What would happen if … Krill is considered the largest biomass in the world (estimated to be about 500 mmt) and has been utilized in Japan for centuries. The Krill are an endangered species because they eat organisms that live in coral reefs and coral is also going extinct. Most marine species in the Southern Ocean – including whales, seals, penguins, albatrosses, petrels, squid and many others – feed on this small shrimp-like organism. ASOC is a key partner in the Antarctic Krill Conservation Project, whose goal is to protect the base of the Antarctic marine ecosystem – krill.. Wiki User. What would happen if Krill became extinct? Krill is a general term used to describe about 85 species of open-ocean crustaceans known as euphausiids. FAO did not start keeping statistics on krill until the early 1970s when there was a global initiative to find unexploited marine sources of protein. They are prey for myriads of surface feeding predators such as seabirds, squid, fish and whales. 2012-09-15 11:43:36 2012-09-15 11:43:36. whales would become extinct. Krill and other food remain trapped in the whale's mouth and get swallowed whole.

When Aker BioMarine started its krill operations in 2003, it was clear that “the conventional trawling system was not going to work for krill, at least not for us,” he says.

Not a Global Citizen yet? Top Answer. The head of Antarctic krill.