Antarctic krill

Euphausia superba

Also calledKrill (Norwegian) · Okiami (Japanese) · Kril antártico (Spanish) · Nánjí línxiā (Chinese)

A shrimp-like crustacean only about 6 cm long whose total weight, hundreds of millions of tonnes, may be the largest of any wild animal species. Almost everything in the Southern Ocean depends on it, from penguins to blue whales.

Antarctic krill is a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. It is a small, swimming crustacean that lives in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000–30,000 animals per cubic metre. It feeds directly on minute phytoplankton, thereby using the primary production energy that phytoplankton originally derive from the sun in order to sustain its pelagic life cycle. It grows to a length of 6 centimetres (2.4 in), weighs up to 2 grams (0.071 oz), and can live for up to six years. A key species in the Antarctic ecosystem and in terms of biomass, E. superba is one of the most abundant animal species on the planet, with a cumulative biomass of approximately 500 million metric tons ; however, the species is suffering from overfishing. Wikipedia