Thoraiya DyerHumans Eating Krill Is Like A Seedy Uncle Molesting The Food Chain
May 8th 2008 00:16
You probably learned about krill at school. They’re the things that whales eat, right? Krill are zooplankton – animal types of plankton. They float around happily wherever the ocean currents take them: Teeny baby fish, teeny baby lobsters, teeny baby shrimp.
They eat the other kind of plankton – phytoplankton, or plant planktons. They're like a billion microscopic cows all munching away, busily turning grass into meat. Only, they're turning phytoplankton into zooplankton on a massive scale.
It's a pretty handy skill.
Well, not just handy but absolutely essential. Whole ecosystems are founded on it. Krill are eaten by not only whales but by seals, penguins, fish and squid. If you’re a krill, your chance of being preyed upon is a terrifying 50%, but there are enough of you around to replace that lost half of the population every year.
Until, of course, humans start interfering and WRECK EVERYTHING.
There’s a new ad on TV for krill oil, showing a cute baby cartoon prawn swimming laps around a big lazy fish. It talks about Omega-3s (previously explored in the Lemon Detox post on this blog) and how krill oil is better than normal old fish oil.
According to products.mercola.com/krill/ ,
“fish oil is weak in antioxidant content. As you increase your intake of omega-3 essential fatty acids by consuming fish oil, you actually increase your need for even more antioxidant protection.
Why? Well, fish oil is very perishable. Antioxidants are necessary to ensure that the fish oil doesn't oxidize and become rancid inside your body. As we just noted, oxidation leads to the formation of those unhealthy free radicals.”
What? Fish oil turns rancid in your body, now? What an absolute crock.
As for a shortage of antioxidants, that's easily fixed with a cup of tea. Eat an orange or some green leafy vegetables. We’ve established that fresh fruit and veg is high in antioxidants. But, nooooo! They want us to eat the krill!
“Until the introduction of Antarctic Pure Krill Oil (now known as New and Improved Krill Oil) – a marine oil of genuine Neptune krill solved the dilemma by uniquely and synergistically combining antioxidants and omega-3s.”
It’s not bad enough that Antarctic krill are being harvested to supply the aquaculture industry (you can grow salmon in tanks on land, but most fish farmers still feed them krill or ground up bits of other fish: Really Long Link )
It’s not bad enough that the Japanese, having eaten all the big fish in the oceans that surround them, now eat Antarctic krill on their pizzas, in their salads, soups and restaurant entrees ( Really Long Link ).
It's not bad enough that Antarctic Krill numbers are already drastically declining, says coolantarctica.com, and “may have dropped by as much as 80% since the 1970's - so today's stocks are a mere 1/5th of what they were only 30 years ago. The decline in krill may, in turn account for the decline in the numbers of some penguin species.”
“The reason for this is likely to be a fall in the amount of sea ice in the winter months particularly in the Antarctic Peninsula region.”
We’re already hurting the krill via global warming, and now dodgy salesmen with no conscience want to EXPAND the krill industry? They want us to EAT the damn things, leaving empty stretches of water behind full of algae but no animal life?
That’s morally repugnant to me.
That’s like a seedy uncle molesting the food chain.
If they found a way for humans to eat dirt and claim health benefits for it, they undoubtedly would, even if it left farmland infertile and killed off half a dozen endangered species.
Do the world a favour and DON’T eat krill. Leave it for the penguins and the whales, and don’t let anyone you know be taken in by the hype.
No matter how cute the ads.
And if you find out about any Australian fish farms raising their salmon to be vegetarians ( eg. this experiment in the USA: Really Long Link ), PLEASE post about it here, I would very much like to give them my business.
They eat the other kind of plankton – phytoplankton, or plant planktons. They're like a billion microscopic cows all munching away, busily turning grass into meat. Only, they're turning phytoplankton into zooplankton on a massive scale.
It's a pretty handy skill.
Well, not just handy but absolutely essential. Whole ecosystems are founded on it. Krill are eaten by not only whales but by seals, penguins, fish and squid. If you’re a krill, your chance of being preyed upon is a terrifying 50%, but there are enough of you around to replace that lost half of the population every year.
Until, of course, humans start interfering and WRECK EVERYTHING.
There’s a new ad on TV for krill oil, showing a cute baby cartoon prawn swimming laps around a big lazy fish. It talks about Omega-3s (previously explored in the Lemon Detox post on this blog) and how krill oil is better than normal old fish oil.
According to products.mercola.com/krill/ ,
“fish oil is weak in antioxidant content. As you increase your intake of omega-3 essential fatty acids by consuming fish oil, you actually increase your need for even more antioxidant protection.
Why? Well, fish oil is very perishable. Antioxidants are necessary to ensure that the fish oil doesn't oxidize and become rancid inside your body. As we just noted, oxidation leads to the formation of those unhealthy free radicals.”
What? Fish oil turns rancid in your body, now? What an absolute crock.
As for a shortage of antioxidants, that's easily fixed with a cup of tea. Eat an orange or some green leafy vegetables. We’ve established that fresh fruit and veg is high in antioxidants. But, nooooo! They want us to eat the krill!
“Until the introduction of Antarctic Pure Krill Oil (now known as New and Improved Krill Oil) – a marine oil of genuine Neptune krill solved the dilemma by uniquely and synergistically combining antioxidants and omega-3s.”
It’s not bad enough that Antarctic krill are being harvested to supply the aquaculture industry (you can grow salmon in tanks on land, but most fish farmers still feed them krill or ground up bits of other fish: Really Long Link )
It’s not bad enough that the Japanese, having eaten all the big fish in the oceans that surround them, now eat Antarctic krill on their pizzas, in their salads, soups and restaurant entrees ( Really Long Link ).
It's not bad enough that Antarctic Krill numbers are already drastically declining, says coolantarctica.com, and “may have dropped by as much as 80% since the 1970's - so today's stocks are a mere 1/5th of what they were only 30 years ago. The decline in krill may, in turn account for the decline in the numbers of some penguin species.”
“The reason for this is likely to be a fall in the amount of sea ice in the winter months particularly in the Antarctic Peninsula region.”
We’re already hurting the krill via global warming, and now dodgy salesmen with no conscience want to EXPAND the krill industry? They want us to EAT the damn things, leaving empty stretches of water behind full of algae but no animal life?
That’s morally repugnant to me.
That’s like a seedy uncle molesting the food chain.
If they found a way for humans to eat dirt and claim health benefits for it, they undoubtedly would, even if it left farmland infertile and killed off half a dozen endangered species.
Do the world a favour and DON’T eat krill. Leave it for the penguins and the whales, and don’t let anyone you know be taken in by the hype.
No matter how cute the ads.
And if you find out about any Australian fish farms raising their salmon to be vegetarians ( eg. this experiment in the USA: Really Long Link ), PLEASE post about it here, I would very much like to give them my business.
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Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
ah...the human race, always looking for the next miracle cure.
Comment by Louie
Climate Red
randomthoughts
Phil's Wellness Tips
If Krill are Microscopic isn't Krill on Pizza like the Emperors New Clothes, how do you prove it is there, do they take microscopes to dinner? ,.......... People will believe ANYTHING....
Great Post, thanks
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World
Louie: it makes me shudder to think how many krill you have to scoop up before you get the 100g packets sold in Japanese supermarkets. YIKES.
RUN, KRILL, RUN!
Thank you both for visiting
Comment by Zeech
I thought anchovies were bad!
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
*sigh*
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
what about swim, krill swim?
Comment by Hazel Castillo
Working Title
Cirrus Cloud
Parent Adventures
anything to earn the big bucks huh?
tsk tsk.. on one hand people are trying to make the earth "greener" on the other, the greedies are making sure they counter. tsk tsk..
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World
Winston: Frustrating, isn't it? Won't it be exciting when we all starve to death! Although, I am told jellyfish are anticipated to do very well out of global warming. I wish the Japanese were looking at ways to put more jellyfish on the menu, instead.
Ruby: OK, I just typed "run" instinctively, because of the whole multiple cute wiggly legs thing. I stand corrected.
SWIM, KRILL, SWIM!
Hazel: Too true. Can I interest you in some powdered rhinocerous horn?
Now, if only we could genetically engineer rhinocerouses to be lethally poisonous, or at least have lethally poisonous horns...
Comment by Anonymous
By the way, krill grow pretty large, more than two inches, so you don't need a microscope to see them. Dense people
Comment by Waysouth
Romantic Writer
Given To Gaming
Waysouth
Spanish Honduras
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World
I'm not sure I can just take your word for it...but I sure do like your argument...Whether it's true or whether it's throwing a fun spanner into the works
Thoraiya