The industrialized supertrawlers—each one as large as two Olympic-sized swimming pools—were filmed plowing through a feeding frenzy of hundreds of whales while waddles of chinstrap penguins looked on from surrounding icebergs.

The crew on board Allankay observed a significant increase in the number of whales sighted compared to the 2023 encounter when Sea Shepherd crew documented eight supertrawlers dangerously fishing among pods of whales. Scientists from Stanford University are concerned about this rise in sightings, pointing to an escalating conflict as recovering whale populations, rebounding from the era of commercial whaling, now face competition from an expanding industrial krill fishery. That documentation helped to ensure that the krill quota was not increased for this year.

Coronation Island is the largest of the South Orkney Islands, critical habitat for seals and seabirds, especially chinstrap and Adelie penguins. Over the past forty years, chinstrap penguin populations have fallen by as much as 53%. They rely mainly on krill for food.

To protect the penguins, Argentina and Chile have proposed a marine protected area (MPA) that covers waters off the eastern coast of Coronation Island, where they hunt and feed on krill. Plans for the MPA were presented in 2018 to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Resources (CCAMLR), the intergovernmental body responsible for the conservation of marine wildlife in the Southern Ocean, but each attempt at creating the no-take fishing zone has been blocked by two CCAMLR member states, the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation. CCAMLR is holding a special meeting to discuss the creation of new MPAs later this year.

Now that the Sea Shepherd vessel has arrived in the Antarctic, the crew on board Allankay will continue to track and shadow the krill fishing fleet, focusing particularly on their impact on marine wildlife in proposed marine protected areas (MPAs). Sea Shepherd's vigilant presence has not gone unnoticed. The Ukrainian supertrawler, More Sodruzhedtva, quickly retracted its nets upon spotting the Allankay. It then took a dangerous turn, steering directly towards the Sea Shepherd vessel, prompting the crew to perform swift evasive maneuvers to prevent a collision.

Crew from fourteen nationalities are represented on board Allankay: The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, United States, Czech Republic, South Africa, Belgium, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Israel, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Learn more about Operation Antarctica Defense 

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