As with so many things in life, “it’s the little things” that so often make it all possible. And when it comes to the life in the the Earth’s oceans, the little things that in fact do make it all possible are the tiny crustaceans we commonly know as krill. However despite how readily to many of us the image may come to mind of these tiny creatures being essentially ubiquitous free-range whale chow, most of us actually don’t know nearly as much about them as we might think we do.
Stephen Nicol, however, knows a remarkable amount about krill, and in his new book The Curious Life of Krill: A Conservation Story from the Bottom of the World he takes his readers along on his journeys to discover the effects that our planet’s changing climate is having on one of the largest of the world’s eighty-five known species of krill, the Antarctic Krill, Euphausia superba, as well as all the myriad other species whose lives are influenced by this tiny crustacean – a list that includes us.
