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Krill: Euphausiacea

Krill And People

Krill are fished commercially and are used as feed for fish, especially on farms that raise salmon and yellowtail tuna. In Japan and other parts of the world, the protein-rich bodies of krill are processed and added to foods for human consumption.

THE KRILLING FIELDS

Blue whales measure up to 100 feet (meters) in length and weigh in at 300,000 pounds (136,080 kilograms). Hungry whales swim through swarms of krill, which are only one one-thousandth of their size, with mouths and throats wide open, swallowing as much as 50 tons (45.36 metric tons) of water in one gulp. The krill are screened out by comblike plates and swallowed. Blue whales may eat 3 to 4 tons (2.72 to 3.63 metric tons), or 40,000,000 krill every day.

Additional topics

Animal Life ResourceMollusks, Crustaceans, and Related SpeciesKrill: Euphausiacea - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, Krill And People, North Pacific Krill (euphausia Pacifica): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, CONSERVATION STATUS