Krill free Campaign
The campaign to rid angling shelves of krill-based products
This article was first published at Gobble Bait - Unattracted by krill - Your Angling Voice
There are many attractants on the market, that can be used on baits or lures to provide extra scent and, in many cases, use ingredients known to trigger a feeding response within the target fish.
Many of these attractants, just like bait and fish food manufacturers, have a long history with krill. Why wouldn't they? In its natural form, krill is a cornerstone food supply for many marine species, from fish to birds, cetaceans and other marine mammals. It can be caught in large numbers, processed and then marketed as a natural ingredient.
Gobble Bait saw the issues with using krill. With great passion about the sustainability of our oceans, and with a business personally invested in there being healthy fish stocks to fish for, they realized that the over fish of krill, at the bottom of the ocean food chain, could have absolutely dire consequences further up the chain.
YourAnglingVoice spoke with Sturla Fjellvang, a Norwegian who is one of the brains behind Gobble Bait and it's incredible catch successes, to ask why they opted against the seemingly easy option of using krill.
"In 2012 as a partner in the company Northern Baits we used a lot of krill in our baits. " Says Sturla, reflecting on the fact that we all go through a learning cycle.
" At one point we bought 20 metric tons of krill hydrolysate. At that time, krill was flagged as a sustainable and natural ingredient, the use of it being encouraged compared to any synthetic alternative. I sold out of that company some years ago and went on to new bait ventures. "
" As awareness grew I decided to find other options. No doubt krill is an effective ingredient, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but through research and experience we learned that there are viable alternatives that are not going to have a sever impact on the ocean food chain. After all, krill itself it is just a combination of molecules that work in synergy. It all boils down to chemistry."
Pressed on why he looked for alternatives if krill was proven to work, Sturla said: "We live and work by the north sea, and the ocean is our main laboratory, if we, as users of this resource are not going to protect it, who will?"
Speaking about how they went about finding alternatives, Sturla spoke of the thousands of hours of footage using underwater cameras. "This has mainly been on wild fish in nature, as captured or farmed fish could react differently. A huge range of substances have been tested over many years, both alone and in combination. Some of these found their way into our products. And we believe the results we have speak for themselves."
"While adding krill is an easy option, it is not necessarily the most effective additive. It's widespread use is no doubt because it is the easier option. It's like making fast food, anything tastes good to humans if you add enough butter, salt and sugar. But by combining other, more sustainable ingredients, and enhancing natural extracts with single molecules you can make a more powerful and concentrated product. You can make a stronger food signal, a combination of the best from several sources and get a result that makes the fish bite, which is well proven by now from our catch reports!”
Gobble Bait now want others to learn from their own findings, and shift away from the use of krill, so that fish stocks are healthy right from the bottom of the food chain up. They join YourAnglingVoice as founder of the KrillFree campaign, with an ultimate aim of stopping the extraction of this species, that so much ocean life is dependent on, across the next decade.
Be sure to join us and Gobble Bait in this campaign by signing up at https://youranglingvoice.co.uk/krillfree
