No one fishes for krill off the West Coast, and federal fisheries managers want to keep it that way so the tiny shrimp-like creatures remain as plentiful as possible as food for whales, salmon, and seabirds.
NOAA Fisheries Service on Monday issued a final rule barring krill fishing inside the 200-mile limit in the Pacific off California, Oregon and Washington.
Krill are taken primarily off Antarctica, where scientists have raised concerns the fishery has upset the food web, making life tougher for penguins and other marine life. A smaller fishery has been going since the 1970s off British Columbia. The catch is processed into food for salmon farms, as well as home aquariums, and an oil consumed by people.
Read the complete story at The San Fransisco Chronicle.