“Cooperation is what nature teaches us” and other lessons gleaned from chasing krill supertrawlers in Antarctica

I have just returned from a voyage to the end of the world: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It is a part of our planet that, due to roaring winds and raging seas, is hidden from our lives. With its towering icebergs, shimmering glaciers and incredible wildlife, it truly is one of the world’s last great wild places.

Antarctica has long been recognized for its unique nature. In fact, in 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed, which enshrined Antarctica as a place for peace and science with all territorial claims set aside. This treaty survived throughout the Cold War, despite the differences between the USSR and the USA, and continues to this day. It gives me hope as a benchmark of what can be achieved through cooperation.

This is what excites me for the future—the necessity of cooperation in the face of the monumental challenges the natural world faces.

“As industry pushes nature and the wild to the very edge all around the world, my hope is that places like Antarctica will be beacons for cooperative protection.”

I have been very privileged in my short life to have seen a lot of the world; from fighting illegal fishing in the tropical waters of West Africa to defending pilot whales in the remote Faroe Islands in the North Sea. Everywhere I have been, I have seen the constant exploitation of the natural world and communities by industry—the quest for never-ending profit in a finite world. It is this challenge that worries me the most: Will we as a collective humanity be able to set aside this quest for profit and be able to share and cooperate better with ourselves and the natural world?

I have learnt the value in cooperation in the conservation movement. The most recent voyage I went on was a cooperative campaign between the Bob Brown Foundation and Sea Shepherd Global, the marine conservation group known for protecting whales in Antarctica.

Cooperation is what nature teaches us. It is one of the most valuable lessons it can give. No species stands alone in an ecosystem. There is an interconnectedness that we have left behind in our capitalist society and yet you can see it in nature all the time. As I watched fin whales lunging for schools of krill—small crustaceans found across all oceans—in Antarctica, it was marvelous to see all the chinstrap penguins and petrels sharing in the whale’s efforts. It’s in these moments that you can witness in real-time how an ecosystem, and nature more broadly, works.

What shattered the scene was an industrial trawler plowing right through this school of krill, hoovering up the ecosystem as it passed.

This was the reason I traveled to Antarctica—to document and expose the fleet of supertrawlers that plunder krill from Antarctica. This fleet catches the very foundation of the Antarctic ecosystem to make products we do not need. It is the epitome of industries’ quest for profit. This incredible creature that penguins, whales, and seals rely on to survive is caught to make things such as aquaculture feed for salmon, pet food and supposed “health” products. An easy first step is to make sure that you don’t buy anything that contains krill.

As industry pushes nature to the very edge all around the world, my hope is that places like Antarctica will be beacons for cooperative protection. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean deserve total protection, not industrial supertrawlers emptying it of this keystone species.