The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has recertified the Antarctic Krill Fishery of three ARK Member companies as sustainable and well managed. The new certificate runs from 12 November 2026 to 11 November 2031. It follows an independent assessment started in May 2025 and an independent review of a formal objection.
The certificate covers the QRILL Company (Norway), AQF Chile and Jeong Il Corporation (Republic of Korea). Their six vessels fish for Antarctic krill in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, known as Area 48 of CCAMLR (the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources). For the first time, the three companies went through a single joint reassessment.
The independent certifier, LRQA, scored the fishery against the three MSC principles: the health of the krill stock, the effects of fishing on the ecosystem, and the quality of management. The fishery met the standard on all three.
The assessment named the fishery's strengths. Independent observers cover 100 percent of the fishery. Bycatch of other species stays between 0.1 and 0.3 percent of the catch, and fine-mesh nets keep out anything larger than krill. Member vessels also observe ARK's voluntary restricted zones around penguin colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula. For eight consecutive seasons, these zones have closed 74,400 square kilometres of foraging habitat during the peak breeding season.
The process tested every finding. In February 2026, WWF and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) objected to the recommendation to recertify. The objection went through the MSC's independent review, led by Assurance Services International (ASI), which oversees certifiers on behalf of the MSC. LRQA strengthened the evidence behind its scoring and added two conditions. ASI accepted all the revisions and, on 6 November 2026, cleared the fishery for certification.
The certificate carries three conditions. All three point to the same goal: CCAMLR rules to manage the krill catch at a finer scale, near the areas where penguins, seals and whales feed, with timely and precautionary decisions. The first condition, on the harvest strategy, dates from 2022 and is due at the first annual audit. Finer-scale management is the purpose of the Krill Fishery Management Approach (KFMA), which ARK presented with the Domain 1 Marine Protected Area as a staged package at CCAMLR-45 in October.
The certificate builds on 16 years of MSC certification. The Norwegian fleet first earned it in 2010 and renewed it in 2015 and 2020. This is its fourth certificate. Pesca Chile (now AQF Chile) was first certified in 2018, and Jeong Il Corporation in 2021.
"Every finding was tested: by the certifier, by peer reviewers, by the objectors and by an independent investigation. The fishery passed," said Javier Arata, Executive Officer of ARK. "The conditions point where ARK Members already want to go: catch limits for smaller areas, agreed in CCAMLR. We will keep working with CCAMLR members to adopt them in 2027."
ARK will report progress on the three conditions at each annual audit, and will keep working with CCAMLR members and scientists to put finer-scale management in place.