Swarms seen from space
A swarm can stretch for miles and turn the sea pink. The biggest can be seen by satellite.
Polar seas
Antarctic krill
Euphausia superba
Small, pink, see-through relatives of shrimps. There are more of them, by weight, than almost any other animal.
- Size
- About 6cm long
- Look for them
- All year round
- Where
- The Southern Ocean, in vast swarms
Swarm after you in a cloud. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Krill
Good to know
Six things about krill
Food for giants
A blue whale can eat four tonnes of krill in a day. Penguins, seals and fish depend on them too.
They glow
Krill have light organs along their bodies that give off a blue-green glow.
Farming the ice
In winter, young krill graze on the green algae that grows on the underside of the sea ice.
A huge weight
All the Antarctic krill together weigh several hundred million tonnes: about the same as all the people on Earth.
They can shrink
When food is short, a krill can shrink in size and live off its own body until things improve.
The real thing
Photos of krill
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot them
You cannot miss a swarm from a ship: a pinkish-brown stain in the water, with birds and whales feeding in it.
How to help
Krill are fished for fish food and health oils. Look for certified products, and support protected areas in the Southern Ocean.
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