Update: We won!

Sainsbury's has issued a statement saying they no longer sell Vitabiotics Krill Oil. Thanks to the SumOfUs community that made this victory possible.

Update: We've already had almost 70,000 people call on Sainsbury's to stop selling krill oil pills. And now, Sainsbury's is hitting back.

Sainsbury's is claiming that the krill in its krill oil health supplements are sustainably and responsibly sourced. But the sustainability certification Sainsbury's is relying on is deeply flawed; it doesn't account for the importance of krill in the Antarctic food chain, and the fact that krill are vulnerable to climate change.

PS. If you would like to read our longer response on why the certifications are bad, click here.

Sainsbury's is supporting the plunder of the Antarctic and one of the last unspoiled oceans on the planet.

One of our largest supermarkets is selling Antarctic krill oil as a health supplement. Krill are vacuumed in vast quantities from the Antarctic Ocean and pumped into pills. By doing this, Sainsbury's is putting the entire Antarctic ecosystem at risk, but we can stop it.

Krill may be tiny crustaceans (they look a lot like miniature shrimp), but they are at the bottom of the food chain, and the source of food for hundreds of marine creatures in the Antarctic. A new SumOfUs report shows that krill numbers are crashing, and this is endangering the survival of hundreds of marine creatures like whales, penguins, and seals.

Krill-fishing companies will only stop is if there's no market for Antarctic wildlife on our shelves. That's why we're targeting Sainsbury's -- if we can get this major retailer to refuse to sell krill-killing supplements, we can stop fishing companies from destroying the Antarctic.

Will you sign on to tell Sainsbury's to stop selling krill oil pills?

Imagine you're a penguin. You're out on the pristine Antarctic ice, and you're looking for food...and there's nothing. Companies are taking your food to create luxury health products.

This is what penguins and other sea creatures are facing. Krill populations have already dropped 80 percent since the 1970s. This is harming our penguins, which depend on krill for food. Antarctic penguin populations have dropped 50 percent in the last 30 years.

Krill fishing is lucrative -- seafood companies use mammoth vessels equipped with new technology that literally vacuum the Antarctic Ocean and suck up krill in massive volumes. Krill is one of the last fish stocks that hasn't been been plundered to extinction, but it might not stay that way for long.

We've been told that krill-based omega-3 supplements are good for our health, but retailers are hiding the fact that these pills are ruining our oceans.

Sainsbury's is one of the biggest, high-profile retailers of krill in the UK. If we can get Sainsbury's to drop the sale of krill oil pills, we can get closer to cutting off demand for these tiny crustaceans.

Sainsbury's -- stop selling krill-killing pills that are destroying the entire Antarctic marine ecosystem.

Sainsbury's stocks Vitabiotics, which claims to be sustainably certified. But the claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Leading environmental groups including Pew Environment Group and Greenpeace have long objected to the certification of krill fishing, saying that it "falsely advertises the message that all krill are sustainably caught and that consuming krill-based omega 3 supplements or purchasing farmed salmon raised on krill meal is okay. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Fishing companies won't stop pillaging the Antarctic unless we show them that there's no longer demand for these products. Putting pressure on well-known retailers is the best way we can stop the depletion of the krill population.

At SumOfUs, we've done this before, and we've won. Millions of SumOfUs members stood together, and we successfully got Kelloggs, Krispy Kreme, and Dunkin' Donuts to adopt palm oil commitments that will stop destroying rainforests in Indonesia. Let's do this again for Sainsbury's and its irresponsible fishing practices.

Join the movement by telling Sainsbury's to stop selling krill-based omega-3 health supplements now.

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More information:

Vacuuming Antarctica for Krill: Plundering the Earth's Last Frontier, SumOfUs report