419 Dive Log Australasia AUGUST 2026

are lobbying for the rights to annually take 1.2 million metric tons of krill. With small fish populations being rapidly diminished the salmon farm and poultry industry are eyeing the krill fishery as a potential source for fish meal. Penguins number approximately 18 million individuals. By comparison, there are only about 28,000 wandering albatrosses, while herring gulls number about 1.2 million individuals. Chickens eating fish represent a world out of balance with nature and violates the basic laws of ecology. Chickens are depleting the resources available to seabirds worldwide causing widespread diminishment in numbers and diversity. Twenty-two percent of seabird species are declining in population, and due to the krill fishery, every species of penguin is experiencing population declines. Factory farming of chickens is also extremely cruel, and factory farms are breeding grounds for pathogens. This results in the industry euthanizing millions of animals annually to control viral outbreaks. Another ecological and health concern is the high percentage of microplastics in fish meal. Microplastics and nanoplastics are pollutants ingested by chickens, pigs and salmon and in turn ingested by people. Most people don’t think about chickens beyond food. The cruelty, overcrowded cages, the pollutants, the chemicals, the euthanasia and the mass baby chick butchery are things out of sight and out of mind. And most people never envision chickens eating fish remaining blissfully unaware of how much fish chickens eat and how chickens are contributing to the diminishment of fish and krill. The chicken is a human fabrication, a destructive eating machine contributing to the mass diminishment of fish in the sea, designed for the purpose of providing meat and eggs to human

beings on a massive scale. When people eat factory farmed chickens, they are also consuming fish and nanoplastics. Added to the destruction caused by the fish meal industry, millions of seabirds die every year from entanglement in fishing nets, ingestion of microplastics, oil spills, pollution and hunting by humans. The sea is not a safe place for seabirds. To learn more about the Captain Paul Watson Foundation and Operation 86, our direct actioncampaign to end Icelandic whaling, visit paulwatsonfoundation.org.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #419 August 26

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