Days after Coles Group provided written confirmation to Sea Shepherd that it no longer sells krill-derived products across its more than 840 supermarkets, Woolworths also confirmed that it also does not sell krill oil supplements. 

Together, Woolworths and Coles account for approximately 67 percent of national supermarket grocery sales, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), meaning krill oil supplements are now absent from around 2200 stores, representing roughly two-thirds of Australia’s supermarket grocery market.

The confirmation extends the market shift – already underway among major retailers in Germany and the United Kingdom – to Australian shores.

Coles’ confirmation followed Sea Shepherd’s observation that several krill oil products previously listed on the retailer’s website were marked as “currently unavailable.”

Sea Shepherd’s Campaign to Protect Antarctic Krill

The development comes amid heightened scrutiny of the Antarctic krill fishery, driven in part by four consecutive Sea Shepherd expeditions to the Southern Ocean.

During these campaigns, Sea Shepherd repeatedly documented industrial supertrawlers operating among foraging whales inside a proposed marine protected area. Evidence gathered at sea was subsequently presented to retailers alongside concerns over weakening regulations governing the rapidly expanding krill fishery.

Krill are a keystone species in the Southern Ocean, converting energy captured by phytoplankton into a food source that sustains whales, penguins, seals, and countless other species. Changes in krill abundance can reverberate throughout the Antarctic food web. Scientific evidence suggests that krill densities around the Antarctic Peninsula, where much of the commercial fishery is concentrated, may have declined by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s.

Much of the Antarctic krill catch is processed into krill oil for use in omega-3 dietary supplements, despite the widespread availability of alternatives, including omega-3 supplements derived directly from algae. Unlike krill oil, algae-based omega-3 does not require the industrial extraction of wildlife from the Antarctic food web.

The Sea Shepherd vessel Allankay returned from Antarctica earlier this year after facilitating the work of an independent team of scientists studying the overlap between the krill fishery and foraging whales.

At the end of 2024, a key conservation measure requiring krill fishing activity to be distributed across a wider geographic area expired after governments failed to agree on its renewal. The measure was designed to reduce the risk of localized depletion. Without those spatial restrictions, fishing effort can become increasingly concentrated in ecologically important areas, intensifying pressure on wildlife competing for the same krill resource.

Earlier this year, the Antarctic fur seal was classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on extinction risk. Antarctic krill are a critical component of the species’ diet.

Retailers Worldwide Moving Away from Krill Products

The developments in Australia follow decisions by major international retailers to move away from krill-derived products, including German retailers dm-drogerie markt and Rossmann, and Holland & Barrett, a leading health and wellness retailer in the United Kingdom.

In October 2025, Holland & Barrett launched the Antarctic Krill Pledge together with Sea Shepherd Global, a co-authored call to action encouraging retailers to end sales of all krill-based products.

While neither Coles nor Woolworths has signed the Antarctic Krill Pledge, Sea Shepherd is encouraging Australian consumers to urge them to formalize their positions by signing the Pledge.

Learn more about Sea Shepherd’s Antarctic Defense Campaign: https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/our-campaigns/antarctica-defense/