Antarctic Dictionary

krill

Thesaurus

krill [From the Norwegian kril, small fry or fish. Cf Dutch kriel small things. The word was first used in northern hemisphere English (1907, New-foundland: NOED) for the same group of animals.]

1. Any of the shrimp-like planktonic marine crustaceans in the order Euphausiacea which are found in oceans worldwide. In polar regions they form great swarms which are an important food source for baleen whales, seals, birds and fish. They have been commercially fished in antarctic waters. Often krill applies specifically to antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. See also euphausiid.

26 Nov 1912 (South Georgia) Murphy, Robert Cushman (1948) Logbook for Grace Robert Hale Ltd, London: 147.

This area is filled with an incredible profusion of the small antarctic opossum shrimp known to the Norse whalemen as krill. The krill is the principal food of the humpback, finback, blue, and smaller whales found in these waters.

1929 (South Georgia) Discovery Reports vol 1 Discovery Committee, Colonial Office, London: 361.

The species which constitute the whale's food can be determined, and a rough idea can be formed of the fluctuations in abundance and types of "krill" which occur on the whaling grounds. The whales caught at South Georgia (excluding the Sperm whale) feed exclusively on Euphausia superba ... Off the South African coast the little food in the stomachs was found to include Euphausia recurva, E. lucens and Nyctiphanes africanus, species which grow to a length of less than 1 in.

1935 Christensen, Lars in Jayne, E.M.G., transl. fr Norwegian Such is the Antarctic Hodder and Staughton, London: 193.

By copepod I mean all those varieties of animalculæ upon which whales feed, especially krill.

1942 Mackintosh, N.A. in Polar Record 3(24) Jul: 558.

The krill [sc. Euphausia superba] is limited to the southern part of the Southern Ocean, and occupies a circumpolar zone which nearly corresponds to the maximum area covered by the pack-ice in winter.

1958 Fuchs, Sir Vivian and Hillary, Sir Edmund The crossing of Antarctica: the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955–58 Cassell & Co, London: 125.

These were Euphausia or 'krill', the main food of many species of whale ... We collected as many as we could of these pink crustacea, thinking they would make a surprise dish for David Stratton's birthday next day. ... Our special dish of sea-food was duly prepared in honour of David's birthday and certainly it looked most attractive. Manfully he tackled the delicate pink pile, only to find that each multi-legged corpse contained no more than a few drops of pink oil.

1968 Herbert, Wally A world of men: exploration in Antarctica Eyre & Spottiswoode, London: 68.

The Arctic Terns arrived, pointing their red beaks threateningly at us as they circled and squawked overhead. They had migrated 13,000 miles, but arrived looking bloated on the krill they found when they reached the pack ice.

1971 Young, Pamela Penguin summer — or, a rare bird in Antarctica A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington: 149.

It was a miserable day, cold and snowing lightly. The ground was a slippery red mess of melting snow and krill-stained guano.

1981Insight [London] 3(35): 958.

During the Antarctic summer (December to April), krill forms swarms varying from a metre (3 ft) to 800 m (half a mile) wide in the top 200 m of water.

1991 Bradshaw, Margaret Canterbury Museum's Antarctica.: a supplement to the displays at Canterbury Museum Canterbury Museum, Christchurch: 16.

When Euphausia superba, the red shrimp-like crustacean commonly called krill, shows up in the ocean, you can be sure you have entered Antarctic waters.

1995 (Bird Island) British Antarctic Survey Newsletter no. 336 Aug: 3.

The big swell swamped the rocks at the cove entrance and washed swarms of small 'krill' into the ice. At night the krill trapped within the ice were phosphorescent, each footstep throwing ahead a shower of sparks.

2. Usu. in combination, as krill burger, ~mince, ~paste, ~stick

The meat of the animals, used as petfood and sometimes for human consumption.

1973 Australian Fisheries 32(7) Jul: 36.

Krill is the common name given to a number of species of euphausiids -minute shrimp-like crustaceans - found in oceans of the world. Concentrations are greatest in the North Pacific, North Atlantic and Antarctic Oceans, and least in tropical and subtropical areas... Various agencies in the Soviet Union are engaged in a publicity and promotion campaign to sell krill paste.

1981 Insight [London] 3(35): 963.

Breaded krill sticks (krill fingers) have been successfully marketed in Chile!

1989 May, John The Greenpeace book of Antarctica, 2nd edn Child & Associates, Sydney: 147.

In Japan, whole krill achieved satisfactory sales, as did a krill cheese spread ("Koral") in the Soviet Union. Chile produces frozen krill "sticks" like fish fingers, and the Norwegians used it in soup products.

1991 Abel, Kay, Williams, Meryl and Smith, Perry Australian and New Zealand Southern Trawl Fisheries Conference. Issues and opportunities. Melbourne, 6-9 May 1990 Bureau of Rural Resources/Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Canberra: 211.

The first commercially released foodstuff made from krill was a paste made from coagulated krill protein. This was sold .. in the USSR in the late 1970s and it was fairly unpopular. The paste was usually pink with a curd-like consistency but when made from actively feeding krill tended to become green and taste peculiar ... Minced krill was produced by both Polish and West German enterprises in the late 1970s, with a high yield of 40-50 percent. Acceptable krill mince was difficult to make from low grade krill and, because it was made from the whole animal, exhibited high fluoride levels. Krill mince was made into sausages and soups, though its high pH, inability to bind water and low ability to emulsify fats made it a poor raw material for the food processing industry.

1991 South African Shipping News & Fishing Industry Review 46(6): 21.

South African companies have tried to market krill, but encountered objections from the Dept of Health on account of the inherent high levels of fluoride in the fish ... Whole krill had 24 times more fluoride than the maximum allowed by the US Food & Drug Administration, and flesh extracted from the shell had seven times more than the safety limit.

The Antarctic Dictionary, Hince, 2000; 206