Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 01/05/2009 - 04:41
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Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

hope u r havin a fun time with evry 1 there. my qestions 2day is concerning of krill. do almost all seals eat krill that live up there? and how can there be enough krill for about thousands of penguins and seals that r up there? and r krill relatided to shrip and crawfish if so that i can see why penguins love them!!!! also why did u not answer the billy billy boop boop journel it has a lot of good questions?

by

nicole luther

 

 Laughing

 

 

 

 

 

Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:13

Jeff Peneston

Nicole,
I am having a blast, thanks for asking.  Just like insects completely outnumber people (and other animals) on land, krill are extremely common in polar waters.  Before human whalers drastically reduced the number of great whales, hundreds of thousands of the great animals each ate tons of krill a day and they could not control the krill population.  With many fewer whales today, the krill are even more common and the seals have tried to expand their population to take advantage of the surplus food.  There are at least 15 million crabeater seals in Antarctica that mostly east just krill.  The other three seals will also eat krill at part of their diet.  There are also millions of Adelie and Emperor penguins who eat krill as a main part of their diet which also includes fish and squid.   Yes, krill are related to shrimp and freshwater crayfish.  I can also tell you a gross krill story.  A few of the seals that we have captured have been so full of krill that once they were in the net, they defecated all over the net, the ice and the seal researchers! The seal droppings were the same red color as the krill and smelled as bad as you can imagine digested shrimp might smell.  I have a pair of gloves that will never be the same again!!!
 Thanks for the question,
Jeff Peneston