Jubel: Update from Antarctica: Confirming our worst fears

What We Discovered Confirmed Our Deepest Fears

After shutting down whaling in the Southern Ocean—and chasing the last toothfish poacher out of Antarctic waters—we hoped Antarctica was safe.

But then we learned about four massive supertrawlers plowing through a megapod of over 1,000 fin whales. It was one of the greatest gatherings of fin whales sighted since whaling almost brought the world’s second largest creature to extinction in the last century. We saw photographs where the warm breath of spouting whales and the hot gases of funnel smoke from ships filled the air as the supertrawlers and the fin whales furiously pursued the same prey in “the epicenter of the krill fishery”.

We needed to know if this conflict between foraging whales and net-dragging super trawlers was a one-off, or if it was commonplace.

What we discovered would confirm our deepest fears.

When we arrived off the frozen shores of Coronation Island we came across two supertrawlers fishing. They discharged scalding bright pink wastewater that created steam as it hit near-frozen sea water. We quickly understood it was the remnant of the live boiling of krill on the ship.

Through the steam, we began to see spouts. First gradually, and then suddenly, we were surrounded by fin whales in every direction. They crossed the bows of the supertrawlers and they swam alongside the dragging nets. We counted at least 200 of them. When they appeared, the supertrawlers steered immediately for the feeding whales, knowing that they marked the krill swarms.

Watch the full video below.

We’d come expecting to uncover something exceptional, and yet what we saw was frighteningly ordinary - taking food from whales as a daily business model.

It is clear that Antarctic sea life -- like whales, penguins and seals -- are not safe at all. In fact the entire Antarctic ecosystem is directly under threat.

Together, we must put a stop to this.

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